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Health Effects of Residence Near to Hazardous Waste Sites Containing PCBs

Health Effects of Residence Near to Hazardous Waste Sites Containing PCBs. David O. Carpenter, M.D. Institute for Health and the Environment University at Albany. The History of PCB Manufacture and Use.

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Health Effects of Residence Near to Hazardous Waste Sites Containing PCBs

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  1. Health Effects of Residence Near to Hazardous Waste Sites Containing PCBs David O. Carpenter, M.D. Institute for Health and the Environment University at Albany

  2. The History of PCB Manufacture and Use • In the US PCBs were manufactured by Monsanto from 1929 until banned by the Toxic Substance Control Act in 1976. • More than half of the use of PCBs was for “closed” systems in transformers and capacitor. PCBs are good insulators and relatively non-flammable. While PCB manufacture stopped in 1976, there was no requirement to remove PCBs from these closed systems. • The great majority of current PCB contamination comes from “open” uses of PCBs as solvents for caulk and paint, as plasticizers, hydraulic fluid, in carbonless copy paper and in semi-closed systems as heat exchangers. • Present law requires PCB contamination at levels greater than 50 ppm to be removed and placed in a secure landfill.

  3. How can we be exposed to PCBs? • There are three routes of exposure to PCBs. One can eat or drink them, breathe them in from the air or absorb them through the skin. • Eating PCBs is probably the most common source, and all animal fats contain PCBs. • Breathing PCBs is also an important route of exposure, as they are semi-volatile. • You can also absorb them through the skin. They are fat-soluble and pass right through the skin.

  4. How Long do PCBs Stay in Our Bodies? • The half-life of PCBs in the human body (how long it takes to get rid of 50%) varies with PCB structure. • Those PCBs with few chlorines stay in the body only days to weeks, and are broken down in the liver. • Those PCBs with more chlorines stay in the body for decades, since they are much more difficult to break down. • How dangerous the PCBs are is not necessarily related to how long they stay in the body • One can get information about exposure by measurement of the levels of PCBs in blood, but this does not necessarily capture all the danger

  5. Our Question: What are the health effects of living near to a waste site with hazardous chemicals? • We have a total of 814 identified waste sites in New York known to contain hazardous chemicals. • We have identified locations of each (by zip code) and identified the major chemicals. • Zip codes were classified as containing persistent organic pollutants (“POPs”, mostly PCBs), volatile organic pollutants (“VOCs”), “other” contaminants but not POPs or VOCs or not have an identified waste site (“clean”). • Current research will add datasets on industrial emissions from the Toxic Release Inventory and National Emission Inventory, but results are not yet available from these.

  6. Zip Codes Grouped by Exposure Status

  7. Our Health Studies • We have performed two types of studies. • The first uses the NYS SPARCS dataset which gives disease diagnosis upon discharge from hospitals. This has large numbers, but no individual exposure assessment beyond the zip code of residence near to waste sites. These are ecologic, hypothesis-generating studies. • The second type of study is of a smaller population with direct measures of exposure and with personal medical and clinical chemistry history.

  8. The NYSDOH SPARCS records all diseases (up to 15) identified in every hospital inpatient by ICD-9. The publically available dataset also provides age, gender, race, zip code of residence and method of payment of hospital charges. We have this data for the years 1993-2008, with approximately 2.5 million entries per year. Average family income was obtained by zip code from the 1990 and 2000 US census. Behavioral data, currently available only at a county level, was obtained from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System of CDC and NYSDOH. SES and Behavioral Data Derived from Two Sources: Health Data:

  9. HypertensionData Histograms

  10. Adjusted Rates for Hypertension • Clean sites 1.00 (referent) • POPs sites 1.19 (1.09-1.31) • Other sites 1.10 (1.00-1.21) • Hudson 1.14 (1.05-1.23)

  11. Anniston, Alabama • Anniston is a city of about 24,000 people. It is the home of one of two US plants operated by the Monsanto Corporation for the manufacture of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which were sold under the trade name, Aroclor, from 1929-1971. • We have studied blood pressure in relation to serum PCB and pesticide levels in 772 residents, ages 18-93 years. • PCB/pesticide analysis done by CDC

  12. •400,000 metric tons (MT) of PCB produced 1920s-1971 (estimated from Monsanto data) •Over 4,550 MT of PCB dumped in Anniston landfills (from USEPA assessment 1979) •A minimum of 20.4 MT emitted to the atmosphere from 1953 – 1970 (from Monsanto data) •14,000 MT of PCB distillation waste (Montars) dumped in Anniston landfills (from Monsanto data)

  13. Figure 2. Linear regression of systolic and diastolic blood pressure on total PCBs concentration. The dashed lines show cut-off pressures for systolic (a) and diastolic (b) hypertension.

  14. Pesticides and Blood Pressure • We found no significant relationship between concentrations of hexachlorobenzene, β and γ hexachlorocyclohexane, oxychlordane, trans-nonachlor, pp’-DDE, op’- or pp’-DDT or mirex with either systolic or diastolic blood pressure.

  15. PCBs and Diabetes • Diabetes has usually been thought to be a lifestyle disease resulting from poor diet, obesity and lack of exercise. • While lifestyle is important, it may not be the most important risk factor for developing diabetes. • New evidence shows that people with high concentrations of several PCBs are more likely to have diabetes.

  16. Crude (unadjusted) hospitalization rates for diabetes before modeling for all of the NYS population (except NYC) for ages 25-74 years in clean, other and POP sites (A) and broken down by age (B). The numbers above the bars indicate the rates per 100,000. * - statistically significant compared to “clean” sites ( p<.05 ).

  17. Diabetes at Akwesasne • We studied 352 adults ages >30 years, obtaining fasting glucose, history of diagnosis of diabetes, serum PCBs and 3 pesticides. • The prevalence of diabetes was 20.2%. • After adjustment for sex, age, BMI, and smoking, the OR for having diabetes, comparing the highest to lowest tertile, was 3.9 for total PCBs, 6.4 for DDE and 6.2 for HCB.

  18. Association Between Diabetes and Various POPs after Adjustment for all other POPs and Number of Chlorines. • Exposure RR p-trend • Tri-Tetra 5.02 0.034 • Penta-Hexa 0.40 0.404 • Hepta Plus 1.27 0.300 • HCB 1.74 0.003 • DDE 2.18 0.206 • Mirex 1.75 0.518

  19. RRs of PCB Congeners Having No or One Ortho-substituted Chlorine After Adjustment for all Other POPs. RR p-trend • All non-mono 5.25 0.0002 • Dioxin-like 0.91 0.2174 • Non-dioxin-like 7.54 0.0185

  20. Significance of these Results • We have found that different PCB congeners and different chlorinated pesticides have different associations with these diseases. • For diabetes the PCB congeners showing strong associations are those with few chlorines, and these are the one who are more volatile. • Inhalation is the likely the most important route of exposure. • Those who study total PCBs or total pesticides likely miss important associations.

  21. Table 1. Physical characteristics of PCBs by homologue groups at 25º

  22. Aroclor 1260 liquid 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 % of Total PCB PCB congener in elution order Aroclor 1260 vapor 10 8 6 4 2 0 % of Total PCB PCB congener in elution order Figure 2. The congener patterns in Aroclor 1260 liquid (top) and the congener pattern seen when passing air over the liquid and collecting and analyzing the vapor-phase PCBs

  23. Studies on Cognitive Effects of PCB Exposure in a Native American Community • My colleagues and I have studied health effects of PCB exposure in the Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne in Northern New York, Southern Quebec and Ontario. • We obtained fasting blood samples from adolescents 10 to 16 years of age. • We administered four different cognitive function tests. • Although these adolescents were not found to be out of the range of “normal”, we found that the higher the PCB level in the blood, the less well the adolescents did on each of these four tests. Newman et al., Neurotoxicol Teratol 28: 439: 2006

  24. Correlations between PCBs and Cognitive Variables in Mohawk adolescents.

  25. What About Adults? • We tested about 350 adults with memory and IQ tests. • Individuals with higher blood PCB levels did not do as well on these tests as those people with lower levels. Haase et al., Environ Res 109: 73: 2009

  26. What is the significance of PCBs on IQ? • The impact of toxins on the developing brain is believed to be permanent and irreversible. • Children who are more heavily exposed to toxins won’t reach the same peak cognitive ability as those who have lower exposure. • Little shifts in IQ matter! IQ levels determine success in all aspects of life. Furthermore the effects of cumulative exposure add or even more than add. • There is no safe level of toxins for children.

  27. PCBs and Cancer • The International Agency for Research on Cancer has declared PCBs to be Group 1, known human carcinogens. • The evidence is strongest for malignant melanoma, and strong for breast cancer and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. • Other evidence indicates increased risk of thyroid, brain, pancreatic and other cancers.

  28. General Electric Study of Cancer and PCBs in Rats in 1998 • Four commercial PCB products were fed to rats for 24 months and caused cancer • Caused liver tumors in females and thyroid tumors in males • The National Cancer Institute in 1978 found that a commercial PCB mixture caused a rare type of stomach tumor in 6 of 144 exposed rats. This is significant since this type of tumor was found in only 1 of 3548 control rats at NCI. (IRIS 1997) Mayes et al., Toxicol Sci 41: 62: 1998

  29. Inhalation of PCBs Can Cause Cancer • JM and GM were a husband and wife who worked at a plant that recycled waste oils that may or may not contain PCBs. • Both were told to “smell” the oils before testing them so as to identify oils containing PCBs. • JM was born in 1967. In 2003, he was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. In 2011 he was diagnosed with a malignant melanoma. In 2013 he was diagnosed with lung cancer, but he was not a smoker. In 2013 he died of brain metastases. • GM was born in 1968. In 2003 she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. In 2011 she was diagnosed with a compound melanocytic dysplastic nevus, a precursor to malignant melanoma. • The blood results provide very strong evidence that inhaled PCBs caused JM and GM’s cancer.

  30. Blood Concentrations of PCBs • PCB JM GM US BKG • 28 1.82 3.47 0.031 • 52 1.22 1.60 0.016 • 101 <LOD 0.33 <LOD • 138 <LOD 0.22 0.152 • 153 0.17 0.23 0.218 • 180 0.16 0.44 0.168 • These results show that both had high concentrations of volatile PCBs (PCBs 28 and 52) but not of other higher chlorinated PCBs than the general US population. • Breathing PCBs causes cancer.

  31. Conclusions • PCBs are dangerous chemicals and exposure increases the risk of a variety of different diseases and reduces ability to learn and remember. • Our recent studies indicate that inhalation of PCBs is an important route of exposure. Simply living near to a PCB-contaminated site increases the risk of disease.

  32. Major Collaborators • At UAlbany and NYSDOH: • Tony DeCaprio Bob Rej • Azara Santiago-Rivera Ivan Shcherbatykh • Gayle Morse Xiaoyu Huang • Richard Haase Lawrence Lessner • Maria Schymura Alexander Sergeev • Serban Negoita Maria Kouznetsova • Neculai Codru Alexey Goncharov • Zafar Aminov • At Akwesasne At CDC/ATSDR • Akwesanse Task Force on Marian Pavuk • the Environment Anniston PCB Consortium

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