Serum dioxin levels in former New Zealand sawmill workers twenty years after exposure to pentachlorophenol (PCP) ceased

Morbidity in former sawmill workers exposed to pentachlorophenol (PCP): A cross‐sectional study in New Zealand

“…This study also found statistically significant trends for the number of positive Q16 responses, physical symptoms such as weight loss, fever/rigors/sweating, excess fatigue, and nausea, and also for a history of emphysema or bronchitis. The participants in the study by Walls et al have also subsequently been found to have elevated levels of serum dioxin in comparison with both the exposed and non-exposed workers in the current study [McLean et al, 2008].…”

“…This was to involve: (i) a cohort study of mortality in former timber workers; and (ii) a morbidity study of surviving members of the cohort assembled for the mortality study that compared PCP exposed workers with other sawmill workers with little or no PCP exposure. We have previously reported the findings of the cohort study and of the serum dioxin levels in a random sample of surviving members of this cohort [McLean et al, 2008]. We present here in the scientific literature the highlights of the crosssectional morbidity survey in workers from the same cohort.…”

“…Uptake was primarily through skin contact with either PCP solutions or with the treated timber itself [Kauppinen and Lindroos, 1985;Enarson et al, 1986;Kalliokoski and Kauppinen, 1990]. A New Zealand survey, conducted by the Ministry of Health during 1986 and 1987, measured PCP in urine in workers performing a range of tasks in the sawmilling process, and established that uptake was significant in those who mixed the treatment solutions, and that there was a clear hierarchy of uptake depending on proximity to the treatment baths [McLean et al, 2008]. The levels observed for all tasks apart from the mixing of PCP solutions were less than one-tenth of the Biological Exposure Index of 2 mg/L PCP in urine (proposed by the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists in 1986 and adopted in 1988).…”

“…Absorbed PCP is rapidly excreted with elimination half-lives of between 4 and 72 days reported [ATSDR, 2001], while the PCDDs and PCDFs have half-lives of up to 10 years [IARC, 1997], so the measurement of these specific congeners in serum provides a good indicator of historical exposure to PCP. The job with the potential for the heaviest exposure was the mixing of the antisapstain treatment (PCP) solutions [McLean et al, 2008]. Other tasks involving the potential for heavy exposure included the removal of the sludge formed in the bottom of dip tanks, and any process involving heating of PCP such as burning treated wood or welding structures which had been contaminated with PCP [Kalliokoski and Kauppinen, 1990].…”

Early developmental exposure to pentachlorophenol causes alterations on mRNA expressions of caspase protease family in zebrafish embryos

“…The peak concentration of PCP was detected in Dongting Lake (103.7 mg/L, Zheng et al, 2000). The structural stability made PCP difficult to tackle, and it might even convert to dioxin-like substances and coexist with dioxin (Laine et al, 1997;McLean et al, 2009;Tuppurainen et al, 2000). PCP was known to result in extensive adverse effects and diseases in humans and animals, e.g.…”