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The History of PCB Liver Impacts

As early as the 1930s, scientists recognized that PCBs can cause severe liver damage, even through skin contact and breathing of the vapors. In 1937, the following paper was published:

Before World War I, the Halowax Corporation, in New York City, began manufacturing chlorinated naphthelenes as a coating for electric wire, and companies like General Electric began using it. The president of Halowax, Sandford Brown, told the meeting that they had observed no problems in their workers until "the past 4 or 5 years... Then we come to the higher stages [greater number of chlorine atoms in the mixture], combined with chlorinated diphenyl [another name for polychlorinated biphenyl or PCBs], and other products, and suddenly this problem is presented to us." (Drinker, et al) 

By the mid-1930s, workers at Halowax and at GE, and even some of their customers, were breaking out with chloracne—small pimples with dark pigmentation of the exposed area, followed by blackheads and pustules. In 1936, three workers at the Halowax Company died. Autopsies of two revealed severe liver damage. 

Halowax then hired Harvard University researcher, Cecil K. Drinker, to investigate. He exposed rats to these chlorinated compounds, to see if they could discover the underlying cause. The Harvard researchers made "a number of estimates of chlorinated hydrocarbons in the air of different factories," then designed experiments to expose rats to similar levels. The rats also suffered from severe liver damage. 

Conference notes report that "the chlorinated diphenyl is certainly capable of doing harm in very low concentrations and is probably the most dangerous [of the chlorinated hydrocarbons studied]." Dr.Drinker added, "These experiments leave no doubt as to the possibility of systemic effects from the chlorinated naphthalenes and chlorinated diphenyls." 

From a brief report on the one-day conference, we can gather that problems caused by PCB exposures were serious and widely known. Mr. F.R. Kaimer, assistant manager of General Electric’s Wireworks at York, Pa., said, "It is only 1 ½ years ago that we had in the neighborhood of 50 to 60 men afflicted with various degrees of this acne about which you all know. Eight or ten of them were very severely afflicted—horrible specimens as far as their skin conditions were concerned. One man died and the diagnosis may have attributed his death to halowax vapors, but we are not sure of that...."(Drinker, et al) GE’s medical director, Dr. B. L. Vosburgh of Schenectady, N.Y., attended the meeting. He said, "About the time we were having so much trouble at our York factory some of our customers began complaining. We thought we were having a hysteria of halowax mania throughout the country." 

Monsanto Chemical Company was represented at the meeting by R. Emmett Kelly. Mr. Kelly told the meeting, "I can’t contribute anything to the laboratory studies, but there has been quite a little human experimentation in the last several years, especially at our plants where we have been manufacturing this chlorinated diphenyl." He went on to describe the results of Monsanto’s human experiments: "A more or less extensive series of skin eruptions which we were never able to attribute as to cause, whether it was impurity in the benzene we were using or to the chlorinated diphenyl." (Drinker, et al) 

GE’s F.R. Kaimer described the HUMAN reaction of GE executives to the disfigurement and pain of GE workers exposed to PCBs: "[W]e had 50 other men in very bad condition as far as the acne was concerned. The first reaction that several of our executives had was to throw it out—get it out of our plant. They didn’t want anything like that for treating wire. But that was easily said but not so easily done. We might just as well have thrown our business to the four winds and said, ‘We’ll close up,’ because there was no substitute and there is none today in spite of all the efforts we have made through our own research laboratories to find one." (Drinker, et al) 

And so GE executives—contrary to their personal ethics—reached a business decision to continue using PCBs. Sanford Brown, the president of Halowax, concluded the meeting by stressing the "necessity of not creating mob hysteria on the part of workmen in the plants" where chemical-safety inspections were being made. Problems with PCBs and napthalenes, he predicted, "may continue, probably will continue for years." (Francis, 1994) 

1938 --- A study of PCB-oil mixtures manufactured by Westinghouse and GE demonstrated that liver damage could be caused by skin contact alone, and called for the "greatest personal hygiene" in minimizing exposure. In further research for Monsanto, Drinker warned that adequate ventilation was necessary when handling the chemicals. (Francis, 1994)

1947 --- E.C. Barnes of Westinghouse’s medical department wrote, in an internal company memo, that long-term exposure to PCB fumes "may produce internal bodily injury which may be disabling or could be fatal." (Greenpeace)

1951 --- Monsanto also had in its files a 1947 scientific finding that there was "need to give warning" about PCBs because "the toxicity of those compounds has been repeatedly demonstrated." (Francis, 1994) 

1956 --- General Electric’s files contained a bibliography of 43 references on the health dangers and possible lethality of PCBs and PCB component chemicals. (Francis, 1994)

1959 ---- The assistant director of Monsanto’s Medical Department wrote to the Administrator of Industrial Hygiene at Westinghouse saying, "...sufficient exposure, whether by inhalation of vapors or skin contact, can result in chloracne which I think we must assume could be an indication of a more systemic injury if the exposure were allowed to continue." (Wheeler, 1959) Monsanto also sent Westinghouse animal toxicity studies on PCBs and Material Safety Data Sheets with specific warnings about the risks of overexposure. 

Go to:

• Summary of Liver Studies
• PCB Studies Involving the Liver
• Vitamins and Minerals May Change Our Vulnerability
• Links to More Information
• References