Document zdnGRVK01rGwKJqM2GELZ0VR0

V'O CN es 2/21/87 RE: Additional Immunotox References TO: Bab Sonawane. REAG (RD-689) Ralph Smialowicz (MD-67) Robert Luebke (MD-67) I really enjoyed your write-up on the immunotoxicity of 2,3,7,8-TCDD. I have prepared some comments which you may have already received. I_ would encourage you to expand this_ material. a bit and to publish it since this is a very important issue, and there doesn1t seem to anything out there in the literature discussing the subject from. A to Z (or should that be MBIT to "r"?) in quite this wayj,- The expansion could include PCBs and CDFs also, which are arguably associated with 2,3,7,8-TCDD. I suspect that there are more human data on these latter incidents; e.g., electrical workers and electrical equipment accidents. Here are a couple references along that line that allege human effects: Elo, 0. et al. Recent PCB accidents in Finland. Environ. Health Perspect., 60: 315-319 (1985). This is a report of an acute accidental exposure of workers to PCBs and PCDFs. The most important effects observed were decreased T-lymphocytes and lowered T-helper/T-suppressor cell ratio. Responses of lymphocytes to mitogens were also lowered. Changes persisted, in some cases, for 6 months after exposure. No effects were seen in the immunoglobulins. In addition, the workers reported an increased incidence of respiratory infections during the subsequent months. (This latter report is problematical, even to some of the authors.) Kochman et al. Chemosphere 15: 1799-1804 (1986). These folks looked at people exposed to PCBs and PCDFs after a transformer fire in Reims, France. They found 2378-PCDFs in the blood and a slight variation of the T lymphocytes. Once again, nice work.