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Estimating the half-lives of PCB congeners in former capacitor workers measured over a 28-year interval

Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology volume 21, pages 234–246 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

To date, most estimates of the half-life of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in humans have been based on relatively short follow-up periods. To address this issue, we determined the half-lives of PCB congeners of occupational origin in the serum of former capacitor workers as part of a study conducted in 2003–2006 — approximately 28 years after their last occupational exposure. A total of 241 persons from a source population of 6798 former capacitor workers were interviewed and asked to donate a blood sample for serum PCB congener analysis. A subgroup of 45 participants also had serum archived from 1976 and reanalyzed for the same 27 PCB congeners by the same laboratory. Our estimates of the half-lives of the congeners among these 45 persons were longer than those reported by Wolff et al. (1992), due primarily to the much longer interval between exposure and determination of serum PCB concentrations. Half-lives were significantly greater for the heavy versus light occupational congeners, for women versus men and for those with low versus high initial exposure. Current serum total PCB concentrations, expressed as the geometric mean of wet weight data, averaged 6.7 ng/g for the entire 241-person cohort, which represents a 10-fold decrease from values reported in the late 1970s, but is still nearly twice the average for persons of similar age residing in the same area, but without occupational exposure. In addition, current serum PCB concentrations remained significantly and positively associated with earlier occupational exposure, but were not associated with fresh water fish consumption. In general, the results support a consistent and long-duration trend of increased PCB body burden in this cohort of former capacitor workers compared with non-occupationally exposed individuals. The results may aid in further understanding the toxicological/epidemiological consequences of exposure to PCBs in humans.

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Acknowledgements

We profusely thank Ed Bloch for his assistance, and we express our appreciation to the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America Union Local 332 Executive Committee and the employees of the Fort Edward and Hudson Falls General Electric plants for their participation. In addition, we thank the NYSDOH staff who contributed to this study including Karl Brosch, Lenore Gensberg, Susan Heckman, and Gwen Mergian. We acknowledge the technical support of Karen Ireland and Zhisong Lui at Mount Sinai School of Medicine for the laboratory analyses. We are grateful for the input and valuable advice of Dr. Susan Korrick of the Department of Environmental Health, Channing Laboratory, Harvard School of Public Health on the design of this study. This study was supported in part by the United States Army Grant Number DAMD17-02-1-0173 to Richard F. Seegal.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. New York State Department of Health, Wadsworth Center, Albany, NY, USA

    Richard F Seegal & Patrick Parsons

  2. Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University at Albany, Albany, New York, USA

    Richard F Seegal

  3. Department of Biomedical Sciences, School of Public Health, University at Albany, Albany, New York, USA

    Richard F Seegal

  4. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University at Albany, Rensselaer, New York, USA

    Edward F Fitzgerald & Elaine A Hills

  5. Department of Community and Preventive Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York, USA

    Mary S Wolff & Andrew C Todd

  6. Department of Counseling Psychology, University at Albany, Albany, New York, USA

    Richard F Haase

  7. Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders Center of Albany Medical Center, Albany, New York, USA

    Eric S Molho

  8. Neurology, Stratton VA Medical Center, Albany, New York, USA

    Donald S Higgins

  9. Department of Neurology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

    Stewart A Factor

  10. Institute for Neurodegenerative Disorders, New Haven, Connecticut, USA

    Kenneth L Marek, John P Seibyl & Danna L Jennings

  11. Department of Psychology, University at Albany, Albany, New York, USA

    Robert J Mccaffrey

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  1. Richard F Seegal
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  2. Edward F Fitzgerald
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  3. Elaine A Hills
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Correspondence to Richard F Seegal.

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Seegal, R., Fitzgerald, E., Hills, E. et al. Estimating the half-lives of PCB congeners in former capacitor workers measured over a 28-year interval. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 21, 234–246 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/jes.2010.3

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