TY - JOUR
AU - Hagmar,, L
AB - Abstract There are 209 congeners of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), the metabolism and toxicity of which vary by congeners. Use of PCBs is now restricted, but environmental contamination and human exposure persist. Analysis for "total PCBs" in biological samples gives limited information; congener-specific analysis is far more informative, but more complicated. Concentrations of congeners in serum/plasma, adipose tissue, or milk are useful biomarkers of exposure. Lipids may contain similar concentrations and congener patterns, but these vary between exposures and are different from those of the corresponding exposure mixtures; hence, analysis of lipids cannot be used to identify the original exposure. Some non- and mono-ortho congeners may attain a coplanar conformation, which renders them capable of a dioxin-like action. Toxic equivalency factors (TEFs) have been used to sum that risk as toxic equivalents (TEQs), which are considerably different from congener concentrations. No reliable data have been developed on the relationship between concentrations of "total PCBs" or congeners in biological samples and effects of PCBs on human health, mainly because of the various analytical procedures involved and confounding exposures. This content is only available as a PDF. © 1994 The American Association for Clinical Chemistry, Inc. This article is published and distributed under the terms of the Oxford University Press, Standard Journals Publication Model (https://academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model)
TI - Exposure to mixtures and congeners of polychlorinated biphenyls
JF - Clinical Chemistry
DO - 10.1093/clinchem/40.7.1409
DA - 1994-07-01
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/oxford-university-press/exposure-to-mixtures-and-congeners-of-polychlorinated-biphenyls-JZcFxrxUwr
SP - 1409
EP - 1415
VL - 40
IS - 7
DP - DeepDyve
ER -