Document 3e2BBEyawyqDMD1EyqeJy36M3

4f I Absence of Polychlorinated Biphenyls in Human Milk and $erum from Texas and Human Milk from New Guinea \ by Paul C. Dyment, M.D., Lt Col., MC and Leon M. Hebertson, M.D., CoL, MC The Pediatric Service, VPilUcm Beaumont General Hospital, El Pato, Tex, 79920 and Edward D. Comes and J. S. Wiseman, Ph.D. Community Pesticides Study Laboratory - Sait Benito, Tam. and R. W. Horna brook, M.D,, F.R.A.C.P. , Institute for Human Biology Territory of Papua and Nate Guinea . Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB's) are chemicals used in Industry as plasticizers and in the manufacture of electrical insulators, varnishes, paints, lubricants, heat transfer ' fluids, and other products. Both PCB's and DDE afe apparently the most abundant of the chlorinated hydrocarbon pollutants in the global eccsystem (1). In general, the amount of PCB's found in animal tissues tends to parallel that of DDE, although the DDE/PCB ratio is lowest near industrial areas, as would be expected (2). Although PCB's have been identified in fish, wildlife, and the environment, their presence or absence in human tissue is virtually* uninown. Risebrough, in a personal communication to the Commission on Pesticides and Their Relationship to Environmental Health in 1969, irvlicated that both pooled human milk and 8 individual human milk samples from California were "positive for PCB." (3) The purpose of the present study is to investigate the degree of human contamination by PCB's by assaying human milk and serum from an industrial ized society (Texas) and human milk from a, until recently, stone age culture (New Guinea natives). METHODS Seventy-nine lactating women were the subjects of this study. Thirty-two were from a variety of native villages in New Guinea , and 47 were from three cities in Texas: 24 from El Paso, a city with light industry in a semi-arid farming and ranching area; 16 were from McAllen, a small city in an agricultural area 1,000 miles down the Rio Grande River from El Paso; and 7 were from Houston, a heavily Industrialised city 300 miles from McAllen. The El Paso samples were from U. S. Army soldiers' wives who characterlstically have come from all parts of the country. Breast milk samples were obtained by manual expression into a chemically clean glass container and then kept frozen until the time of assay. Twenty-eight subjects from Texas had ' Address for reprints: Dr. Paul G. Dyment, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio 44106 .f sn liHwh f ErVurngmil CmHimlimiKi A TaitewUfj, tt It N*. 4 If7|, hy Sprinr-Ytrk| |l YWk |at DS\N 332601 ser and worn rep shi. ext to chr cie; Ana. chr COl! WK eo/: colv 2G5C layt set P.P of i own inse det det and othe to X if 1 they milk sugg poll cont had chlo. poll' had : dete STLCOPCB4079177 run staples dram the ium tlma that the milk was obtained, and thie was frosen in glaea until the time of assay. The wmn alio had both serua and ndLlk sasplss assayed are being reported separately in a study concerned with the relation ship between serua and milk levels of lnaeotioides (4). 2 al. staples of blood serua (9)- and milk (6) sere extracted with hexane. The. blopd extract was concentrated to the deelred voluae and injected into the gas-liquid ehroaatograph (GLC); the milk, however, needed Plorlsil clsen-up prior to cinoentration and lnjeotion into the GLO. Analyses were aoooaplished with a M^oroTek 220 gas ehroaatograph equipped with a tritium foil datector. r >. Coluans used were 1.9% OV-17 and 1.99% QP-1 on Chromosocb W 100A20 assh H.P., and 4% SB-30 6% QF-1 on Chroaosorb f 80/100 aaeh H.P. Teaperatures far the QLC were as followss ooluan tsap. 200 C; inlet teap. 229 C; detector tesp.209 C. Results were oonfimed in conjunction with thin- layer ohroaatography. These perimeters of the QLC were set up to give us a sensitivity ofl-paxt per billlan~af p,p'-DDT. This standard was uSsd as there is a yariety of PCB'a available in this country, each one having its own sensitivity on the QLC. RESULTS AMP DISOTSS10H _ Despite the detection of chlorinated hydrocarboninsectlcidee in all of the Texas staples, no PCB's were deteoted in either the ailk or the serua. Neither were any jtected in the ailk froa New Quines natives, although DDT and DDE were detected in all but one of than. The lack of other isseoticldee in these latter saaplee can ba attributed to the exclusive use of DOT in nslaria-eradication program. Because PCB'a are lipid eoluble we could assume that if they were present In the human body in detectable emounts, they could be recovered from lipid containing tissue such as adlk or serum. Their total absence from these saaplee would suggest that although PCB'a are widespread Industrial pollutants of our eoosyataa, they are not yet signlfloantly contaminating humans. '' SMIiBX Seventy-nine lactating women from New Guinea and Texas had thsir breast milk assayed for the presence of poly chlorinated biphenyls (PCB'a), a'wldsspresd industrial pollutant of the soosystem. Twenty-sight of these women had serum ssmplss essayed fqr PCB's1 also. No PCB's ware deteoted In sny of the sesples. u* I DSW 332602 STLCOPCB4079178 The authors wish to thank Dr. Reuben D. Wende, Director of the Houston City Health Department Laboratories and Dr. James W. Coldwe11 of McAllen, Texas, for obtaining some of the samples. This research was supported in part under Contract No. PH 86-69-73 by the Pestioides Conraunity Studies Division, Pesticides Office, Environmental Protection Agenoy, through the Texas State Department of Health. 1. RISEHROUGH, R. W., REXCHE, P., PEAKALL, D. B., HERMAN, S. G., and KIKVBf, M. N., Nature 220,1098 (1968). PEAKALL, D. B., and LINCER, J. L., Bio Science 20,958 (1970). 3. RISEBROUGH, R. W., in Report of the Secretary's Commission on Pesticides and their Relationship to Environmental Health, 258, (1969), U. S. Dept, of Health Education and Welfare. 4. DYMENT, P. G., HEBERTSON, L. M., DECKER, W. J., GCMES, E. D., and WISEMAN, J. S., to be published. 5. DALE, W. E., CURLEY, A., and CUETO, C., Life Science 5,47 (1966). 6. CURLEY, A., and KIMBROUGH, R., Arch. Environ. Hlth. 18, 156 (1967). 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