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Food, dust and serum of 19 Belgian volunteers were analysed for the presence of PBDEs and HBCDs. Duplicate diet samples contained tri-hepta BDEs and BDE 209 between < 1 - 128 and < 20 7750 pg/g wet weight (ww), respectively. ΣHBCDs were present in diet at lower concentrations < 1 35 pg/g ww. PBDE concentrations in dust ranged between 5 70 and 19 588 ng/g dry weight (dw) for tri-hepta congeners and BDE 209, respectively. ΣHBCDs in dust ranged between 33 758 ng/g dw. Serum samples contained tri-hepta BDEs between < 1 7 ng/g lipid weight (lw) and ΣHBCDs between < 0.5 11 ng/g lw. Overall levels are consistent with those of a background exposed European population. For PBDEs, no correlations were found between concentrations in dust and/or diet and those in the corresponding serum samples. In contrast, dust intake and serum concentrations for ΣHBCDs were significantly correlated (r = 0.86, p

Fourteen tetra- to deca- PBDE congeners were separated on a C18 reversed phase LC column. PBDEs 47, 85, 99, 100, 153, 154, 183, 196, 197, 203, 206, 207, 208 and 209 were eluted using a gradient of methanol: water: toluene mobile phase system at a flow rate of 0.5 ml min.-1. 13C-BDE-47, 13C-BDE-99, 13C-BDE-153, BDE-128 and 13C-BDE-209 were used as internal standards while 13C-BDE-100 was used as a syringe standard. Separated analytes were ionised using an APPI source equipped with a 10 eV krypton lamp and operated in negative ion mode. [M-Br+O]¯ ions were monitored as precursor ions for all studied BDEs except for BDE-208, BDE-209 and 13C-BDE-209 which produced higher intensity at the [C6Br5O]¯ ion cluster. [Br]¯ ions were monitored as fragment ions for all target compounds. Linear five point calibration curves (r2=0.996 to 0.998) were constructed for each of the studied PBDEs in range 20-5000 pg μl-1. Method detection limits ranged from 12.3 to 29.8 pg. The method was applied for determination of PBDEs in SRM 2585 and favourable results were obtained. Unlike GC methods; no thermal degradation is encountered in the analysis of higher brominated PBDEs. In addition, this method allows the use of 13C-labelled internal standards which can compensate for any instrumental fluctuations and/or any matrix-related ion suppression or enhancement that can occur in the ion source.