Concentrations of perfluoroalkyl substances in donor breast milk in Southern Spain and their potential determinants Serrano, Laura Iribarne Durán, Luz María Suárez, Beatriz Artacho Cordón, Francisco Vela Soria, Fernando Peña Caballero, Manuela Hurtado, José A. Olea Serrano, Nicolás Fernández Cabrera, Mariana Fátima Freire, Carmen Perfluoroalkyl substances PFOA PFOS Breast milk Human Milk Banks Preterm infants This research would not have been achieved without the selfless collaboration of the donors who took part in the study. The authors gratefully acknowledge editorial assistance from Richard Davies and the support of the "UNETE research unit" of the Centro de Investigacion Biomedica (University of Granada). This research was funded in part by grants from the European Union Commission (The European Human Biomonitoring Initiative H2020-EJP-HBM4EU), Biomedical Research Networking Center-CIBER de Epidemiologia y Salud Publica (CIBERESP), and the Carlos III Institute of Health (ISCIII) (PI16/01820, PI16/01812, PI16/01858, PI17/01743, and PI17/01526). The authors are also grateful to the ISCIII and the "Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional" (ISCIII/FEDER) for the predoctoral research contract granted to L.M. Iribarne-Duran (FI17/00316), the Sara Borrell postdoctoral research contract granted to F. Vela-Soria (grant no. CD17/00212), the Jose Maria Segovia de Arana contract granted to N. Olea (INT18/00060) and the Miguel Servet Type I Program granted to C. Freire (grant no. MS16/00085). This paper is part of the PhD thesis developed by Laura Serrano in the context of the "Clinical Medicine and Public Health Program" of the University of Granada. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection or analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Funding for open access charge: University of Granada/CBUA. Background: Breast milk is considered to offer the best nutrition to infants; however, it may be a source of exposure to environmental chemicals such as perfluoroalkyl compounds (PFAS) for breastfeeding infants. PFAS are a complex group of synthetic chemicals whose high stability has led to their ubiquitous contamination of the environment. Objective: To assess the concentrations and profiles of PFAS in breast milk from donors to a human milk bank and explore factors potentially related to this exposure. Methods: Pooled milk samples were collected from 82 donors to the Human Milk Bank of the Virgen de las Nieves University Hospital (Granada, Spain). Ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) was applied to determine milk concentrations of 11 PFAS, including long-chain and short-chain compounds. A questionnaire was used to collect information on donors’ socio-demographic characteristics, lifestyle, diet, and use of personal care products (PCPs). Factors related to individual and total PFAS concentrations were evaluated by multivariate regression analysis. Results: PFAS were detected in 24–100% of breast milk samples. PFHpA was detected in 100% of samples, followed by PFOA (84%), PFNA (71%), PFHxA (66%), and PFTrDA (62%). Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) was detected in only 34% of donors. The median concentrations ranged from <0.66 ng/dL (perfluorohexane sulfonic acid [PFHxS]) to 19.39 ng/L (PFHpA). The median of the sum of PFAS concentrations was 87.67 ng/L and was higher for short-chain than long-chain PFAS. Factors most frequently associated with increased PFAS concentrations included intake of creatin animal food items and use of PCPs such as skin care and makeup products. Conclusions: Several PFAS, including short-chain compounds, are detected in pooled donor milk samples. Breast milk may be an important pathway for the PFAS exposure of breastfed infants, including preterm infants in NICUs. Despite the reduced sample size, these data suggest that various lifestyle factors influence PFAS concentrations, highlighting the use of PCPs. 2021-10-20T07:03:09Z 2021-10-20T07:03:09Z 2021-06-23 info:eu-repo/semantics/article Laura Serrano... [et al.]. Concentrations of perfluoroalkyl substances in donor breast milk in Southern Spain and their potential determinants, International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health, Volume 236, 2021, 113796, ISSN 1438-4639, [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheh.2021.113796] http://hdl.handle.net/10481/70993 10.1016/j.ijheh.2021.113796 eng info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020/733032 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Atribución-NoComercial-SinDerivadas 3.0 España Elsevier