Persistent and endocrine disrupting organic pollutants: Advancements and challenges in analysis, health concerns and clinical correlates

Persistent and endocrine disrupting organic pollutants pose serious health risks to humans and wildlife due to their long half-lives, bioaccumulation and toxicity. These compounds have a negative impact on human health and induce a variety of carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic disorders. Extremely low concentrations of these compounds can induce adverse health effects in human. Efficient analytical methods are always demanded in order to extract and determine such low concentrations in environmental and biological samples. In the last decade, studies mostly focused on profiling and identification of persistent and endocrine disrupting pollutants in tissues and body fluids using various analytical methods. However, investigation of trace level pollutants associated with various disorders requires complex analytical protocols. Biological matrix presents serious challenges in the extraction of these pollutants mainly because of its complexity and inherent limitations of extraction procedures. We outline advantages and pitfalls of recent extraction approaches. Analysis of these compounds is carried out by using gas and liquid chromatography methods coupled with different detectors. We have reviewed the current status of advancements in the area of analytical chromatography and accomplishments and weaknesses have been pointed out. At the end, we encapsulate some health effects and clinical correlates of persistent and endocrine disrupting organic pollutants.