In partnership with the Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne, the University at Albany has conducted extensive investigation of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) contamination at Akwesasne and has collected a large amount of exposure, health, and clinical data for Mohawk children and adults. The long-term objective of research in this laboratory is to identify individual determinants of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) body burden, including those related to consumption of contaminated biota, in the Akwesasne Mohawks and in other exposed populations. Body burden, which is characterized by the absolute and relative levels of individual polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners present in tissue, is an important predictor of potential health impairment from polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Multiple exposure-related and toxicokinetics-mediated factors can influence polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) body burden. This renewal application will expand current work on characterizing polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) exposure in the Akwesasne Mohawk population by application of multivariate exploratory data analysis and other statistical techniques, with the goal of identifying source-, route-, and toxicokinetics-specific exposure indicators. The presence of five major contributing serum polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) profiles previously identified in Mohawk adults will be correlated with relevant demographic, exposure, and environmental variables. The study will be expanded to include comparative analyses of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) profiles determined in a cohort of Mohawk children and adolescents. To provide data to assess current body burden, time-dependent changes in congener profiles, and elimination kinetics of individual congeners, new blood specimens will be analyzed from 100 adults. Finally, a complementary database of major serum hydroxylated polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) metabolites in adult Mohawks will be established for comparative statistical analysis. These proposed studies are expected to facilitate ongoing exposure and health effects studies of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) at Akwesasne and are important for understanding the potential health risks from these compounds in general.
