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Methods suitable for determination of extractable organic chlorine in water, sediment and fish have been optimized. Cyclohexane was found to be the best nonpolar extraction solvent. For sediment and fish samples a cyclohexane/isopropanol solvent mixture was used. The organic chlorine in the extracts was determined by neutron activation analysis. The precision of the methods varied between 1 and 11 percent over a large concentration interval. Two methods for determination of adsorbable organic halogen using carbon and XAD-4 as adsorbents were compared. The carbon adsorption method had a lower detection limit (3 µg/l) and gave higher concentrations for effluents,and fresh and brackish water samples. The XAD-4 method gave higher concentrations for sea water samples. Examples of treatment with sulphuric acid containing different amounts of water and the use of thin layer and gel permeation chromatography to separate and characterize extractable organic chlorine are shown.

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Persistent organic pollutant (POP) biomonitoring in humans is challenging and generally carried out using blood, breast milk or adipose tissue, with concentrations normalised to the lipid content of the sample matrix. The goal of this cross-sectional pilot study was to evaluate the validity and feasibility of explanted silicone prostheses as a matrix for persistent organic pollutant biomonitoring in humans. We postulate that pollutant concentrations in silicone prostheses inserted in the body will equilibrate with that in the body over time and provide a measure of the overall body burden. This study included silicone prostheses from 22 female patients of the Colosseum clinic (Oslo, Norway) collected between September 2010 and April 2012. Absorption of chlorinated and brominated POPs into silicone prostheses during implantation was observed. Relative levels of the different contaminants measured in prostheses were in agreement with those from serum and breast milk analyses from the general Norwegian population. The comparison of serum and breast milk-based literature data with prosthesis concentrations transposed into lipid-normalised concentrations supports the validity of the prosthesis measurements. The median of relative percent differences between measurements with replicate silicone prostheses from 11 patients was below 30%. Observed increases in prosthesis concentrations with patients' age were found to be very similar to literature data from studies of the Norwegian population. Silicone prostheses therefore represent a promising matrix for the biomonitoring of nonpolar and non-ionic pollutants in humans. Sample accessibility and body burden representativeness of the silicone prostheses suggest that specimen banking should be initiated.