Subject: RE: Sediment Cleanup, was: Lead shot
Date: Jul 21 14:20:00 1995
From: "Michelsen, Teresa" - TEMI461 at ecy.wa.gov




Serge says:

>I do not doubt that PCBs can hurt people, but I'm just wondering who made
>this conclusion that she lost her child *only because* of see food ?

>I think (not expert in these things however :-) that this sad story may
>happen some time, and is not necessarily linked to poisoning of some
>sort.

I didn't say she lost her child!! That would indeed be an extreme reaction
to PCBs. She couldn't nurse her child, but the child survived happily on
formula :-)) Like me, she has yearly medical monitoring because we work in
the hazardous waste industry. This very thorough monitoring program
detected the presence of fairly high levels of PCBs in her system, thus they
advised her not to nurse her newborn child. She herself seems unaffected,
as far as we know. The most likely source was PCBs in seafood the family
had been eating that summer, due to a friend avidly fishing in Elliott Bay
(that'll teach 'em!!).

I agree with Herb, in response to Don's question, in the 50+ sediment
cleanups I oversee, lead is only occasionally present above cleanup
standards and I don't recall any where it was the primary driver for
cleanup. The sediment standards are set fairly high for lead because it has
not demonstrated a high level of acute toxicity (please note this is based
on soluble lead partitioned onto sediments, NOT on lead shot, which if
ingested as discussed can cause lead poisoning due to high stomach pH). The
most common place where we see "normal" lead in sediments is near stormwater
outfalls, but those concentrations are declining fast due to the phase-out
of leaded gasoline.