(1984). Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) and Polybrominated Biphenyls (PBBs): Biochemistry, Toxicology, and Mechanism of Action. CRC Critical Reviews in Toxicology: Vol. 13, No. 4, pp. 319-395.

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs): biochemistry, toxicology, and mechanism of action

Estrogenic pesticides such as DDT and chlordecone generate deleterious reproductive effects. An "in culture" bioassay was used to assess the estrogenicity of several pesticides. The E-screen test uses human breast estrogen-sensitive MCF7 cells and compares the cell yield achieved after 6 days of culture in medium supplemented with 5% charcoal-dextran stripped human serum in the presence (positive control) or absence (negative control) of estradiol and with diverse concentrations of xenobiotics suspected of being estrogenic. Among the organochlorine pesticides tested, toxaphene, dieldrin, and endosulfan had estrogenic properties comparable to those of DDT and chlordecone; the latter are known to be estrogenic in rodent models. The E-screen test also revealed that estrogenic chemicals may act cumulatively; when mixed together they induce estrogenic responses at concentrations lower than those required when each compound is administered alone.

The pesticides endosulfan, toxaphene, and dieldrin have estrogenic effects on human estrogen-sensitive cells.

It has been known since the last century that maternal milk sometimes may contain chemical contaminants which could have adverse effects on nursing infants. Such experiences came mainly from cases of exposure to occupational chemicals or drugs. Since 1950, it has further been known that human milk may contain potentially hazardous persistent environmental chemicals in concentrations higher than in cow’s milk.

Chemical Contaminants in Human Milk

Several species of colonial fish‐eating birds nesting in the Great Lakes basin, including herring gulls, common terns and double‐crested cormorants, have exhibited chronic impairment of reproduction. In addition to eggshell thinning caused by high levels of DDT and metabolites, the reproductive impairment is characterized by high embryonic and chick mortality, edema, growth retardation, and deformities, hence the name Great Lakes embryo mortality, edema, and deformities syndrome (GLEMEDS). The hypothesis has been advanced that GLEMEDS in colonial fish‐eating birds resembles chick‐edema disease of poultry and has been caused by exposure to chick‐edema active compounds that have a common mode of action through the cytochrome P‐448 system. Detailed evidence has been collected from the following three groups of studies on herring gulls in the lower Great Lakes during the early 1970s; Forster's terns in Green Bay, Wisconsin in 1983; and double‐crested cormorants and Caspian terns in various locations in the up...

Great Lakes embryo mortality, edema, and deformities syndrome (GLEMEDS) in colonial fish-eating birds: similarity to chick-edema disease.

Significance and applications of phenolic compounds in the production and quality of milk and dairy products: a review

Organochlorine insecticides and PCBs in sediments of Lake St. Clair (1970 and 1974) and Lake Erie (1971)

Organochlorine Insecticides and PCB in Surficial Sediments (1968) and Sediment Cores (1976) from Lake Ontario

Organochlorine residues in human adipose tissue and milk from Ontario residents, 1969-- 1974.

Clinical, necropsy, bacteriologic, parasitologic, histopathologic, toxicologic and animal inoculation studies suggest that organochlorine (PCB, dieldrin and DDE) poisoning was an important factor in causing deaths of free-flying ring-billed gulls (Larus delawarensis) in southern Ontario in 1969 and 1973. The brains of gulls dying with clinical signs of neurologic involvement, and dead gulls with no other apparent cause of death, contained organochlorine residues of significantly greater levels than those found in healthy gulls shot for comparison.

Organochlorine poisoning of ring-billed gulls in southern Ontario.

Eighteen species of fish from Lake Saint Clair and 19 species from Lake Erie were analyzed for organochlorine pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) between 1968 and 1976. Mean residues of sigma DDT peaked at 1.19 ppm in longnose gar (Lepisosteus osseus) caught in Lake Saint Clair in 1970-71, but had declined in all species by 1975-76. Dieldrin levels in fish tissues increased over the same period. White bass (Morone chrysops), caught in 1975 in Lake Erie, had the highest mean residue of dieldrin at 0.17 ppm. PCB residues increased in some species and decreased in others. PCB residues exceeding the tolerance level of Health and Welfare Canada were found in the following: from Lake Saint Clair, smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieui) in 1975 and channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) in 1971; from Lake Erie, coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) in 1970, smallmouth bass, alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus), freshwater drum (Aplodinotus grunniens), and gizzard shad (Dorosoma cepedianum) in 1971, and white bass in 1971 and 1976.

M. Holdrinet

Papers

Organochlorine insecticides and PCBs in sediments of Lake St. Clair (1970 and 1974) and Lake Erie (1971)

Organochlorine Insecticides and PCB in Surficial Sediments (1968) and Sediment Cores (1976) from Lake Ontario

Organochlorine residues in human adipose tissue and milk from Ontario residents, 1969-- 1974.

Organochlorine poisoning of ring-billed gulls in southern Ontario.

Residues of organochlorine insecticides and polychlorinated biphenyls in fish from Lakes Saint Clair and Erie, Canada--1968-76.