Dietary intake of hexabromocyclododecane diastereoisomers (α-, β-, and γ-HBCD) in the Belgian adult population.

A study was performed to assess exposure of the Belgian population to HBCD diastereoisomers. Measurements of HBCD were performed by UPLC-MS/MS, on 45 composite samples from 5 major food groups: dairy (products), meat (products), eggs, fish (products) and a group of "other" products. The medium bound estimated average daily intake (EDI) of ΣHBCD in the Belgian population was 0.

Study of the interference problems of dioxin-like chemicals with the bio-analytical method CALUX.

The reporter gene expression method CALUX has proven to be a very valuable screening technique for assessing toxic equivalents of dioxins and dioxin-like compounds, because it detects all AhR ligands in a variety of sample matrices. However, the exact meaning of the CALUX response is difficult to evaluate for complex mixtures mainly since not all AhR ligands are known and since antagonistic or synergistic effects occurs. In this paper, non-additive effects on the CALUX response of dioxins were investigated for a limited number of dioxin-like compounds in concentration ranges that are 10(2)-10(8) times higher than that of 2,3,7,8-TCDD.

Importance of REP values when comparing the CALUX bioassay results with chemoanalyses results Example with spiked vegetable oils.

Differences between chemical activated luciferase gene expression (CALUX) bioassay and chemoanalyses results are observed. This paper shows that calculations of the TEQ values using REP values instead of WHO TEF values give different results. The REP values do affect the results obtained by the CALUX technique.

Dioxin and dioxin-like activity in sediments of the Belgian coastal area (Southern North Sea).

Dioxin and dioxin-like activity in sediments of the North Sea, along the Belgian coast, was assessed with the bioassay CALUX (Chemically Activated LUciferase gene eXpression). Crude extracts of the samples as well as the dioxin fraction (PCDD/Fs) obtained after a thorough clean-up procedure were analyzed with the CALUX method. When analyzing the cleaned extract, a general low contamination level is observed (around 0.

Chemically activated luciferase gene expression (CALUX) cell bioassay analysis for the estimation of dioxin-like activity: critical parameters of the CALUX procedure that impact assay results.

The chemically activated luciferase gene expression (CALUX) in vitro cell bioassay is a bioanalytical tool that is increasingly being used by research and commercial laboratories for the screening and relative quantification of dioxins and dioxin-like compounds in sample extracts. Since CALUX analyses provide a biological response to all aryl hydrocarbon receptor active compounds present in a given sample extract containing a complex mixture of chemicals, interpretation of results is significantly more complexthan of chemical analyses. Operators in the laboratory can adjust many parameters when performing CALUX analyses, and the applied procedure strongly affects the result and, hence, the interpretation of the results.

Validation and interpretation of CALUX as a tool for the estimation of dioxin-like activity in marine biological matrixes.

Among the different analytical tools proposed as an alternative to the very expensive gas chromatography high-resolution mass spectrometry (GC-HRMS) analyses of polychlorodibenzo-p-dioxin and polychlorodibenzofurans, Chemically Activated LUciferase gene eXpression (CALUX) in vitro cell bioassay is very promising. It allows the analyses of a high number of samples since it is relatively fast, inexpensive, and sensitive. However, this technique is not yet widely applied for screening or environmental monitoring.