Health effects three years after potential exposure to the toxic contaminants of an electrical transformer fire

Archives of Environmental Health
Edward F FitzgeraldJ M Melius

Abstract

A medical surveillance program has been established for 482 persons who were potentially exposed to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dibenzo-p-dioxins, and dibenzofurans from an electrical transformer fire in a Binghamton, NY office building in 1981. Vital Record and Cancer Registry data, medical records, and mail questionnaires were used to assess mortality, symptomatology, cancer incidence, and reproductive events through 1984. The numbers of deaths, cancers, fetal deaths, and infants with low birth weight or congenital malformations were similar to those expected on the basis of age- and sex-specific rates for upstate New York and other comparison populations. Two suicides were observed compared with 0.31 expected, but the difference was not statistically significant. After adjustment for possible confounders, persons with the greatest degree of potential exposure were significantly more likely than those with less exposure to report unexplained weight loss (relative risk [RR] = 12.80), muscle pain (RR = 5.07), frequent coughing (RR = 4.14), skin color changes (RR = 3.49), and nervousness or sleep problems (RR = 3.19). The possibility of recall bias and the intervening effects of stress, however, weaken the conclusion that ...Continue Reading

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Citations

Nov 1, 1996·Archives of Environmental Health·S F HsiehY C Ko
May 1, 1996·Critical Reviews in Toxicology·S TasD Lison
Jul 27, 2015·Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology·Andrew T PattersonDirk M Elston
Jan 1, 1995·International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health·S A HwangA Stark

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