Concentrations of perfluoroalkyl substances in donor breast milk in Southern Spain and their potential determinants

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 ...