A Few Bits On Pcbs

Discussion in 'Health & Wellness' started by Frank Sanoica, Mar 6, 2017.

  1. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    PCBs were widely used in transformers supplying power to many infrastructures worldwide. Not intending to re-hash old material, but now and then something of vital interest surfaces. PCBs are one of the worst of the synthetic chemicals disseminated worldwide. Check out these few incidents:

    "In Kenya, a number of cases have been reported in the 2010s of thieves selling transformer oil, stolen from electric transformers, to the operators of roadside food stalls for use in deep frying. When used for frying, it is reported that transformer oil lasts much longer than regular cooking oil. The downside of this misuse of the transformer oil is the threat to the health of the consumers, due to the presence of PCBs."
    PCBs were widely banned long before 2010!

    "Between 1962 and 1983, the Iskra Kondenzatorji company in Semič (White Carniola, Southeast Slovenia) manufactured capacitors using PCBs. Due to the wastewater and improperly disposed waste products, the area (including the Krupa and Lahinja rivers) became highly contaminated with PCBs. The pollution was discovered in 1983, when the Krupa river was meant to become a water supply source. The area was sanitized then, but the soil and water are still highly polluted. Traces of PCBs were found in food (eggs, cow milk, walnuts) and Krupa is still the most PCB-polluted river in the world."

    "Several cetacean species have very high mean blubber PCB concentrations likely to cause population declines and suppress population recovery. Striped dolphins, bottlenose dolphins and killer whales were found to have mean levels that markedly exceeded all known marine mammal PCB toxicity thresholds. The western Mediterranean Sea and the south-west Iberian Peninsula were identified as “hotspots”."

    "Much of the Great Lakes area were still heavily polluted with PCBs in 1988, despite extensive remediation work.[89] Locally caught fresh water fish and shellfish are contaminated with PCBs, and their consumption is restricted"

    "Pollution of the Hudson River is largely due to dumping of PCBs by General Electric from 1947 to 1977.[98] GE dumped an estimated 1.3 million pounds of PCBs into the Hudson River during these years.[99] This pollution caused a range of harmful effects to wildlife and people who eat fish from the river or drink the water."

    Regulation
    "In 1972 the Japanese government banned the production, use, and import of PCBs.
    [8][page needed]
    In 1973, the use of PCBs in "open" or "
    dissipative" sources, such as plasticisers in paints and cements, casting agents, fire retardant fabric treatments and heat stabilizing additives for PVC electrical insulation, adhesives, paints and waterproofing, railroad ties was banned in Sweden.[citation needed] In 1979, concern over the toxicity and persistence (chemical stability) of PCBs in the environment led the United States Congress to ban their domestic production.
    In 1981, the UK banned closed uses of PCBs in new equipment, and nearly all UK PCB synthesis ceased; closed uses in existing equipment containing in excess of 5 litres of PCBs were not stopped until December 2000."


    So over the past 40+ years of cessation of production and implemented use of PCBs, today we are only beginniong to see the continuing debacle. Much more here, if your stomach can take it:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polychlorinated_biphenyl#History
     
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