Assessment of Antibiotic and Pesticides Residues in Breast Milk of Syrian Refugee Lactating Mothers

Occupational exposures and current diet are both sources of environmental contaminants that can be transferred in the mother’s body. These chemicals can definitely penetrate to the developing foetus and the nursing infant from contaminated breast milk during the lactation period. Nowadays, one of the special interests is the exposure of new-borns to toxic chemicals such as pesticides and antibiotics reported in human milk due to their potential harms, especially developmental deficits in early childhood. The aim of our current study was to assess the occurrence of pesticide residues and antibiotic residues contamination in breast milk collected from Syrian refugee lactating mothers residing in North Lebanon Camps. A total of 120 breast milk samples (40 in triplicate) were collected from camps in Akkar, North Lebanon using an electrical pump. A survey was administrated to determine socio-demographic characteristics, dietary and smoking habits and medical history of participating lactating mothers. The milk samples were analysed for the presence of antibiotic residues and pesticide residues using liquid and gas chromatography tandem mass spectroscopy (LC-MS/MS) and Gas Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS/MS). This study reported the absence of antibiotic residues in 96.66% of our samples (n = 120) and the presence of pesticides residues in only 5% of our total breast milk sample. Our results considered the breast milk collected from Syrian refugee lactating mothers as safe from chemical contamination. It is worth conducting more studies on other Syrian refugee camps to test the effect of camp living conditions on breast milk safety.