Environmental exposure to persistent organohalogens and health risks
by Lars Hagmar
Introduction
01 Cancer
02 Ozone
03 Urban air
04 Air pollutants
05 Blue-green algae
06 Water mutagens
07 Contamination
08 Chernobyl
09 Radon
10 Medical geology
11 Renal hazards
12 Organohalogens
13 Estrogens
14 Food hazards
15 Mycotoxins
16 Poisoning
17 Genetics
18 Risk
(Excerpt from Chapter 12)
The concentrations of DDT, PCB, and PCDD/F-TEQ in guillemot eggs from the Baltic Sea have decreased during the last decades. |
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Persistent organohalogens
During this century a vast number of new organic chemicals have purposely been manufactured and used. Others have unintentionally been formed by man. Among these substances there are many chlorinated or brominated compounds. Many of these organohalogens are persistent to both abiotic and biotic degradation and have accumulated in the environment and in the food chains. From an human health perspective, most interest has in recent decades been focused on polychlorinated dioxins (PCDDs), furans (PCDFs) and biphenyls (PCBs). However, a number of persistent organochlorine insecticides have also leaked out into the environment, such as DDT and its analogs. Except for some tropical countries, most of these latter compounds have been banned for decades and the levels in the environment and in humans have decreased quite dramatically. In recent years, persistent brominated flame retardants have been traced both in wildlife and in humans. The use of these compounds is still increasing in the industrialized part of the world. There is, however, still very limited information as to how far this will affect human health.
This chapter will focus on PCDD/Fs and PCBs, and will only briefly comment upon other persistent organohalogens. A main reason for this is that even though the human exposure levels for dioxins, furans and PCBs generally seem to have decreased during recent decades, these exposures are probably still the most important from a health perspective.
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Lars Hagmar became fully licensed physician in 1979, and has thereafter mainly been employed at the Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at Lund University Hospital. He presented in 1986 his Ph.D. thesis, became in 1988 research fellow at the department, and in 1989 senior clinical lecturer. Since 1997 Lars Hag mar is professor in Environmental Medicine at Lund University. His research is mainly direct to wards epidemiological studies of risks for cancer, genotoxicity and reproductive disturbances due to exposure to environmental agents.
