Over more than a decade, we have measured PCB congeners in air of two midwestern communities: a rural community in Iowa and an industrial community in northwest Indiana.  As part of the AESOP Study, we recruited community members to host polyurethane passive air samplers inside and outside of their homes and schools.  We also collected samples of the food they consumed, and we deployed emission samplers to collect direct emissions from indoor surfaces.  We analyzed the samples for PCB congeners in a consistent manner using solvent extractions, solid/liquid and acid cleanup, and capillary gas chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry.  The result is a uniform and comparable set of PCB congener concentrations that present compelling evidence of specific and variable sources and potential for human exposure.  Here we summarize our findings for a suite of more than 150 PCB congeners and compare to historical reports.  We find that the highest air concentrations are due to building materials that contain or are contaminated with Aroclor PCB mixtures.  We detected congeners that indicated the presence of Aroclor 1254 (often used in window and masonry sealants) and Aroclor 1016 (often used in fluorescent light ballasts).  We also detected congeners found in modern paint pigments and the emission signal from this source is widely prevalent in school air and homes that were recently constructed or remodeled.  We find that foods consumed by our study participants have very low PCB concentrations.  We found a variety of PCB congeners in most food samples, but at much lower concentrations than had previously been reported.  We found higher chlorinated congeners in tuna and salmon, and PCB11 (3,3-dichlorobipheny) in tilapia.  Our measurements from these communities in the United States Midwest suggest that remediation of schools may be have the greatest impact in reducing human exposure.<br/>

PCB congeners in air and food of rural and urban communities in the United States midwest

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.