Persistent Organic Pollutants in the Developing World

Concentrations of select persistent organic pollutants across pregnancy trimesters in maternal and in cord serum in Trujillo, Peru

“…The United States levels are from serum samples collected from pregnant women at different pregnancy time points between 1999 and 2002 for National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) (Wang et al, 2009). The low amount of PCBs that was used in Peru (Gevao et al, 2010) could have contributed to the lower serum PCB concentrations that were observed in this study relative to those measured in pregnant women in Europe and the United States.…”

“…However, POPs were analyzed every trimester during pregnancy in only one study in which samples had been collected within 5 years of those in the current study (Glynn et al, 2011). No inventory data were found for POPs in the literature for Peru except for PCBs for which 1000 tons have been estimated to have been used (Gevao et al, 2010). Peru ratified the Stockholm Convention in 2005(Stockholm Convention, 2008b.…”

Resource ecologies, political economies and the ethics of audio technologies in the Anthropocene

“…7 The best known capacitor companies tend to be perceived or designated as ‘American’ (Kemet, Vishay, Cornell-Dubilier, AVX), 8 ‘Japanese’ (Nichicon) or ‘German’ (Wima). However, with the exception of Wima, all are effectively transnational, with subsidiaries managing component operations overseas (especially in China), and their overseas subsidiaries further outsourcing component manufacturing to Southeast Asia and Central America owing to the laxer environmental laws, looser workplace safety regulations and cheaper labour markets (Gevao et al 2010).

Figure 4.Dry tantalum electrolytic capacitor.

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“…The AVX (New Bedford Harbor, MA, USA) and General Electric (upper Hudson River, NY, USA) cases are two of the most extensive and expensive superfund cleanup projects of all time, with the Hudson project in part entailing the dredging of 2.65 million cubic yards of sediment from the bottom of a 40 mile stretch of the Hudson River. The making of PCBs was effectively banned in the United States in 1978 and internationally in 2001, but PCBs continue to circulate, including illegal dumping of the existing Euroamerican inventory in Africa and South America (Gevao et al 2010), and the local ‘vandalism’ of the Kenyan power grid where older American-made power transformers (produced in the same Hudson River plant as GE's capacitors) have been ‘stolen’ and drained of their PCB-laden oil to use for cooking oil (Iraki 2014). While the electrolytic capacitors used for most post-1970s audio equipment used solid dielectrics rather than toxic oils, 9 capacitors are never just bits of inert metals thrown together; their making entails considerable amounts of potentially toxic material, whether it is the sulphuric acids used for sintering tantalum or the fluoride compounds that are the primary waste of the sintering process.…”

Selecting of a cytochrome P450cam SeSaM library with 3-chloroindole and endosulfan – Identification of mutants that dehalogenate 3-chloroindole

“…Persistent organic pollutants (POPs), such as the insecticide endosulfan, pose a specific hazard because of four characteristics: 1) they are toxic; 2) they are persistent, resisting processes that break down contaminants; 3) they are lipid soluble and accumulate in the body fat of humans, marine mammals and other animals and are passed from mother to fetus; and 4) they can travel great distances through wind and water currents [1,2]. Even small quantities of POPs can wreak havoc in human and animal tissue, causing nervous system damage, diseases of the immune system, reproductive and developmental disorders, and cancers.…”