Polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) and dichlorodiphenyl dichloroethylene (DDE) exposure among Native American men from contaminated Great Lakes fish and wildlife.
The New York State Department of Health is performing an investigation of Mohawk men, women, and infants who live at the Akwesasne Reserve along the St. Lawrence River in New York, Ontario, and Quebec Three large industrial facilities bordering the Akwesasne Reserve have seriously contaminated the soil and the sediments and fish of the adjacent St. Lawrence River with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). The main study goals are to investigate the associations among the consumption of locally caught fish, residential exposure, body burdens of PCBs, and liver enzyme induction. Contamination with PCBs, polychlorinated dibenzofurans, polychlorinated dibenzodioxins, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, dichlorodiphenyl dichloroethylene (DDE) and other chemicals has been documented in locally caught fish, ducks, and other wildlife. The contamination of fish and wildlife is a major concern of the Mohawk people, since their tradition and culture emphasize the interdependence of man and his environment and because many residents formerly depended heavily on local fish and waterfowl for food. The focus of this research from 1986-1992 was on nursing women and infants. The major purpose of the current project is to determine if there are associations between dietary, residential, and occupational exposures to PCBs and DDE and individual body burdens in Mohawk men, specifically the husbands, partners, fathers, brothers, or other male relatives of the women in our other studies. In other fish-eating populations, adult men have tended to demonstrate higher PCB and DDE body burdens than women and children. Exposure estimates based on the reported consumption of locally caught fish and wildlife and residential histories will be correlated with the specific pattern of PCB congeners found in serum, thereby establishing a direct relationship between two potential sources of exposure and body burdens. Liver function will be examined through the caffeine breath test (CBT), a sensitive, noninvasive method of assessment of enzyme induction, one of the earliest detectable biological responses to PCBs in laboratory animals. This test appears promising as a method to detect subtle subclinical effects before the onset of overt clinical symptoms. The project is among the first to explore differences in dietary and other exposures, body burdens, and potential adverse health effects due to specific PCB congeners in men and women from the same source population.