CHAPTER TWO: TOXICOLOGIC RESEARCH AND INFORMATION DISSEMINATION
section 118 of the Clean Water Act and the United States Canada
Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.
ATSDR, in collaboration with EPA, contributed to the United States
Response to the International Joint Commission's (IJC) 9th Biennial
Report on Great Lakes Water Quality. Research findings from the
Great Lakes program in the three areas of exposure,
sociodemographics, and health effects were an important component
of this response to IJC.
Recent research findings include:
A significant trend of increasing body burden is associated with
increased fish consumption;
Knowledge of and adherence to health advisories for Great Lakes
sport-caught fish varies across different populations;
Eighty percent of minorities who had eaten Great Lakes sport-caught
fish were unaware of a fish advisory, and awareness was especially
low among women;
Maternal consumption of Lake Ontario Great Lakes fish increases the
risk for prenatal exposure to the most heavily chlorinated PCBs; and
Infants who had been exposed prenatally to the most highly
chlorinated PCBs had poorer performance on the habituation and
autonomic tests of the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS)
when tested 2548 hours after birth than did infants who were not
exposed. No significant relationship was found between PCBs of
lesser chlorination, dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE),
hexachlorobenzene, mirex, or lead and any NBAS performance test.
The children are now 3 years old, and initial new test results for
memory, verbal, and perceptual performance indicate their scores are
lower than those of children whose mothers consumed low amounts
of fish or no fish.
Chemical Mixtures Research Program
The principal aim of this program is to develop methods for assessing the
joint toxicity of exposure to multiple chemicals that are frequently found at
hazardous waste sites. During FY 1999, ATSDR supported experimental
research at universities that has enhanced the understanding of the various
steps and underlying mechanisms of toxicity following exposure to chemical
mixtures. These research findings have been presented at national and
international meetings of toxicology in eight separate oral and poster
presentations.
Researchers at Colorado State University are studying the toxicity of
keratinocytes (skin cells). The results show that the joint toxicity is
either additive or antagonistic when compared with effects found for
the individual chemicals. Similar observations were made in Syrian
37