Occurrence of Polychlorinated Biphenyls in Humans

Abstract

In 1967 the Human Monitoring Survey (1) was established by the Pesticides Program of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare (now, Division of Pesticide Community Studies, E.P.A.) to determine on a national scale the levels and trends of certain more commonlyused pesticide chemicals in the general population. Initially, this program was limited to the iden- tification and measurement of chlorinated hydrocarbon residues in human adipose tissue and blood serum. The Michigan Department of Public Health has been one of several state health laboratories participating in the analysis of samples, collected by the State Services Branch of the Division of Pesticide Community Studies, from hospitals located in approximately 30 states. For the purpose of obtaining poolable data, the state laboratories use methodologies recommended by the Perrine Primate Laboratory, E.P.A. (Florida), which is responsible for methodology develop- ment, the operation of the quality control pro- gram, and serves as a repository of reference standards.