Bio-surveillance of environmental pollutants in the population of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC): a small pilot study

Trésor Bayebila Menanzambi; Patrice Dufour; Catherine Pirard; Jean Nsangu; Jean-Pierre Mufusama; Jérémie Mbinze Kindenge; Roland Marini Djang'eing'a; Corinne Charlier

doi:10.1186/s13690-021-00717-x

Bio-surveillance of environmental pollutants in the population of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC): a small pilot study

Arch Public Health. 2021 Nov 15;79(1):197. doi: 10.1186/s13690-021-00717-x.

Authors

Trésor Bayebila Menanzambi¹, Patrice Dufour^{2

3}, Catherine Pirard^{2

3}, Jean Nsangu⁴, Jean-Pierre Mufusama⁴, Jérémie Mbinze Kindenge⁴, Roland Marini Djang'eing'a³, Corinne Charlier^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Kinshasa, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. baytresor_pharma@yahoo.fr.
² Laboratory of Clinical, Forensic and Environmental Toxicology, University of Liege (ULiege), CHU (B35), 4000, Liege, Belgium.
³ Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Medicines (C.I.R.M), University of Liege (ULiege), CHU (B35), 4000, Liege, Belgium.
⁴ Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Kinshasa, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Abstract

Background: Environmental pollutants are known to be ubiquitous and may present toxic effects (endocrine-disruption properties, carcinogenicity …) and represent a real threat to human health. The aim of the present pilot study was to assess the content of environmental pollutants (inorganic, persistent, and non-persistent pollutants) in biological samples (urine, serum, and whole blood), collected from volunteers in Kinshasa, capital of Democratic Republic of Congo, in order to identify pollutants of interest and to design a protocol for a larger scale study.

Methods: From randomly selected 15 volunteers living in Kinshasa, aged from 25 to 66 years, (mean age = 43.4 years), including 10 men and 5 women, urine, whole blood, and serum samples were used in this study to estimate the contents in these environmental pollutants, using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry, and liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry.

Results: When compared to data nationally and internationally available, the preliminary outcomes of this study indicated a very high level of exposure to environmental pollutants in the population of Kinshasa, especially for heavy metals, parabens and triclosan. To a lesser extent, contamination measured for glyphosate, phthalates, organochlorine pesticides, pyrethroids and dialkylphosphate pesticides was also significant. In contrast, the investigated population of Kinshasa was found to be weakly exposed to other persistent organic pollutants like polychlorinated biphenyls, brominated flame retardants, phenolic organohalogens, and perfluoroalkyl substances.

Conclusion: Although the biologic fluids were collected from a limited number of volunteers (n = 15), the results of the present report clearly indicate that the population of Kinshasa is not spared by the investigated environmental pollutants. Moreover, this study gives us important information to design a larger scale study protocol.

Keywords: Bio-surveillance; Environmental pollutants; Kinshasa; Serum; Small pilot study; Urine; Whole blood.