=======================Electronic Edition========================
RACHEL’S HAZARDOUS WASTE NEWS #61
—January 25, 1988—
News and resources for environmental justice.
——
Environmental Research Foundation
P.O. Box 5036, Annapolis, MD 21403
Fax (410) 263-8944; Internet: erf@igc.apc.org
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MOTHERS EATING GREAT LAKES FISH BEAR INFANTS SHOWING PCB EFFECTS.
A study of 313 infants born in Michigan hospitals reveals that
mothers eating fish from the Great Lakes have a shortened
gestation period and produce babies that are shorter, weigh less,
have smaller heads, and suffer from behavioral disorders in their
reflexes at birth. Women in the “high exposure” category ate
about 14 pounds of Great Lakes fish per year for six years or
more. (Average fish consumption in the U.S. is 17 pounds per
person per year.)
The culprit in the Great Lakes is PCBs, or polychlorinated
biphenyls, which contaminate all fish in the Great Lakes (and,
indeed, in many other bodies of water, such as the coastal
oceans). PCBs enter the Great Lakes principally as air
pollution. Historically, PCBs have been poured on the ground and
left to evaporate slowly into the atmosphere. Later, they are
brought back to earth by rain.
The study of Michigan women and their babies is: Greta Fein and
others, INTRAUTERINE EXPOSURE OF HUMANS TO PCBS; NEWBORN EFFECTS
(Duluth, MN: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Environmental
Research Laboratory, 1984); available for $13.95 from: National
Technical Information Service (NTIS), Springfield, VA 22161;
phone (703) 487-4600. Ask for publication No. PB8418-888-7.
Descriptor terms: pcbs; death; death statistics; fish; great
lakes; birth defects; developmental disorders; mi; water
contamination; water; health; health statistics; epa; studies;
findings;