Evaluation of organochlorine pesticides in prepared daily food rations of employed and unemployed workers

: Determination was made of the contamination degree of the daily food rations illustrating the overall mean food intake per head in households of manual workers and in other households. The residues of DDT and of its metabolites as well as of alpha, gamma and beta isomers of HCH were determined. The results indicate that the contamination degree of the different food rations depended on the locality where the ration was prepared, on the kind of ration and kind of organochlorine pesticides. Food rations of manual workers' families, as compared with other families, were more contaminated with organochlorine pesticides their metabolites. The degree of contamination with DDT, DDE and DDD, as compared with HCH isomers, was from several to 10-20 times higher (manual workers' rations). DDT (concentration range between 2.95-124 micrograms/CRP) and gamma-isomer of HCH (concentration range between 0.512-3.0 micrograms/CRP) were dominant. Evaluation, according to ADI, of the yearly uptake of DDT and HCH with food indicates that the contamination degree of food rations (both--rations reproduced on the basis of reports of the Chief Census Bureau, and representative rations characterizing the degree of exposure of the Wielkopolska population to organochlorine derivatives) creates no health hazard to humans, and remains below the admissible concentrations.