| The work presented in the thesis describes the bioaccumulation of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in the food chain in West African region. The first part of the work consists in a general introduction (chapters I and II), while the second part deals with the development and validation of analytical methods which were applied on selected samples from Sene-Gambian region. Samples included in this study were water, soil, vegetables, spices and some biological samples such as animal fat, fish and human serum. Comparison of lipid determination methods was done in order to choose the most suitable method for each type of biological sample to be analysed.; The developed methods are based on hot Soxhlet extraction followed by either a destructive or non-destructive clean-up. After the clean up, the quantification was performed using GC-ECD and eventual confirmation was performed by GC/MS in SIM mode.; With some little exceptions, the concentrations of OCPs detected in environmental samples were low, except for human serum for which relatively high concentrations of pesticides were found.; Bioaccumulation of pesticides computed through the bioaccumulation factors and the fugacity concept showed a biodilution of the analyzed OCPs in animal fat and a high biomagnification in humans which are situated at the top of the studied food chain. |
