Perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) are man-made organofluorine chemicals manufactured and marketed for their stain-resistant properties. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are anthropogenic organochlorine compounds previously used in various industrial and chemical applications prior to being banned in the Western world in the 1970s. Both PFCs and PCBs are persistent contaminants within the human organism and both have been linked to adverse health sequelae. Data is lacking on effective means to facilitate clearance of PFCs and PCBs from the body. Methods. Blood, urine, and sweat were collected from 20 individuals (10 healthy participants and 10 participants with assorted health problems) and analyzed for PFCs and PCBs using high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. Results. Some individual PCB congeners, but not all, were released into sweat at varying concentrations. None of the PFCs found in serum testing appeared to be excreted efficiently into perspiration. Conclusions. Induced perspiration may have some role in facilitating elimination of selected PCBs. Sweat analysis may be helpful in establishing the existence of some accrued PCBs in the human body. Sweating does not appear to facilitate clearance of accrued PFHxS (perfluorohexane sulfonate), PFOS (perfluorooctane sulfonate), or PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid), the most common PFCs found in the human body. 1. Background Following the advent of sophisticated tools of production and analytical technologies to characterize individual chemicals after the Second World War, an unprecedented upsurge in the diversity and production volume of chemical agents occurred throughout the second half of the 20th and the early part of the 21st century. Applications for assorted chemicals eventually came to include a range of goods and services from use in industrial processes to inclusion in regular consumer products such as food, clothing, electronics, cleaning products, and cosmetics. As a result, synthetic chemicals and various by-products are now integrated into most aspects of our daily lives. Adverse sequelae of the chemical revolution have recently been recognized, with several studies confirming that many chemical compounds have accumulated and persist within the environment and within people [1, 2], with attendant health sequelae in many cases [3, 4]. In response, research is currently underway to determine methods to eliminate persistent compounds from the body in order to preclude and overcome health problems [5, 6]. Although there are millions of chemical compounds available around
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