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Toxic Chemical Present in Yellow Dyes Used in Household Products
From Ring of Fire:
A toxic chemical banned in the 1970s may have found its way back into our everyday lives. According to a new study from Rutgers University, the chemical, PCB-11, is found in the dye used to make yellow products such as clothing, magazines, plastic bags, napkins and more.
PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, have been linked to cancer and have been shown to cause serious effects on the immune, reproductive, nervous, and endocrine systems as well as other health effects.
PCBs are man-made chemicals that were banned by the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1979. Yet a loophole in the law allows PCBs to be present in consumer goods at low levels because lawmakers realized that it would be difficult to regulate the inadvertent production of PBCs, ABC News reports.
You can read the full article here at Ring of Fire.
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http://plone.environmentalhealthnews.org/news/2014/feb/pcb-pigments
Yellow pigments in clothing, paper contain long-banned PCB
New, unpublished research has found that polychlorinated biphenyls – banned in the United States 35 years ago – are leaching out of clothing and printed materials from around the world.
By Brian Bienkowski
Staff Writer
Environmental Health News
Feb. 20, 2014
[img]
[/img]
Many yellow pigments are diarylides, which contain PCB-11 as a byproduct of manufacture in Asia. (Denise Krebs/flickr)
Throwing on pajamas and curling up with a magazine could mean exposure to chemicals banned several decades ago. New, unpublished research has found that traces of polychlorinated biphenyls – banned in the United States 35 years ago – are leaching out of clothing and printed materials from around the world.
PCB-11 was detected in nearly all samples of paper products sold in 26 countries and clothing sold in the United States. The findings shed some light on how the chemical, tied to yellow dyes, inks and paints, is finding its way into people’s blood, the air and waterways.
Because it is an unintentional byproduct of pigment manufacturing, the PCB-11 found in the consumer products is exempt from U.S. laws regulating the compounds.
“It’s out there in levels that are worrisome,” said Lisa Rodenburg, an associate professor of environmental chemistry at Rutgers University and senior author of the study.
“Even at the parts per billion levels, if you find it in almost everything you test, that means people are in almost constant contact," she said.
Health effects of exposure to traces of PCB-11 have not been studied. But unlike the old PCBs, it doesn’t accumulate in people or animals. The banned PCBs, which are so persistent they are still contaminating the environment, have been linked to reduced IQs, cancer and suppressed immune systems.
In the new tests, all 28 samples of non-U.S., ink-treated paper products, including advertisements, maps, postcards, napkins and brochures, contained PCB-11 in the parts-per-billion range. In the United States, 15 of the 18 paper products had it.
In addition, all 16 pieces of U.S. clothing contained PCB-11. Most were children’s items bought at WalMart stores but manufactured overseas, Rodenburg said. In one kids’ pajama top, the front, which had yellow printing on it, had 20 times more PCB-11 than the back, which was printed in red.
“PCB 11 is ubiquitously present as a by-product in commercial pigment applications, particularly in printed materials,” the authors from Rutgers University and Boston College wrote in a draft of the study, which has undergone initial peer review and is expected to be published this year.
All PCBs were banned in the United States in the late 1970s because they were building up in the environment and in the bodies of people and wildlife. But byproducts of manufacturing are allowed as “unintentional contaminants.”
<>
The compound also keeps showing up in U.S. waterways.
PCB-11 has been found in the New York-New Jersey Harbor and the Delaware River. In the Delaware River, the load of that compound was almost double the amount of total PCBs allowable under federal rules.
In recent years, PCB-11 also has been found in the Houston Ship Canal, the Rio Grande River and San Francisco Bay, and in water at several sites in the Great Lakes region.
The new study reported that the chemical could be getting into waterways through the washing of clothes that contain the yellow pigments.
“The more studies that come out like this, we’re going to have to check out the biological impacts,” said Nukhet Aykin-Burns, an assistant professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Iowa who analyzed PCB-11’s impact on oxidative stress in cells.
“Just because we stopped production of PCBs and regulate them doesn’t mean we don’t have to worry anymore," he said. "They’re still relevant and coming from different sources now.”
Yellow pigments in clothing, paper contain long-banned PCB
New, unpublished research has found that polychlorinated biphenyls – banned in the United States 35 years ago – are leaching out of clothing and printed materials from around the world.
By Brian Bienkowski
Staff Writer
Environmental Health News
Feb. 20, 2014
[img]
[/img]
Many yellow pigments are diarylides, which contain PCB-11 as a byproduct of manufacture in Asia. (Denise Krebs/flickr)
Throwing on pajamas and curling up with a magazine could mean exposure to chemicals banned several decades ago. New, unpublished research has found that traces of polychlorinated biphenyls – banned in the United States 35 years ago – are leaching out of clothing and printed materials from around the world.
PCB-11 was detected in nearly all samples of paper products sold in 26 countries and clothing sold in the United States. The findings shed some light on how the chemical, tied to yellow dyes, inks and paints, is finding its way into people’s blood, the air and waterways.
Because it is an unintentional byproduct of pigment manufacturing, the PCB-11 found in the consumer products is exempt from U.S. laws regulating the compounds.
“It’s out there in levels that are worrisome,” said Lisa Rodenburg, an associate professor of environmental chemistry at Rutgers University and senior author of the study.
“Even at the parts per billion levels, if you find it in almost everything you test, that means people are in almost constant contact," she said.
Health effects of exposure to traces of PCB-11 have not been studied. But unlike the old PCBs, it doesn’t accumulate in people or animals. The banned PCBs, which are so persistent they are still contaminating the environment, have been linked to reduced IQs, cancer and suppressed immune systems.
In the new tests, all 28 samples of non-U.S., ink-treated paper products, including advertisements, maps, postcards, napkins and brochures, contained PCB-11 in the parts-per-billion range. In the United States, 15 of the 18 paper products had it.
In addition, all 16 pieces of U.S. clothing contained PCB-11. Most were children’s items bought at WalMart stores but manufactured overseas, Rodenburg said. In one kids’ pajama top, the front, which had yellow printing on it, had 20 times more PCB-11 than the back, which was printed in red.
“PCB 11 is ubiquitously present as a by-product in commercial pigment applications, particularly in printed materials,” the authors from Rutgers University and Boston College wrote in a draft of the study, which has undergone initial peer review and is expected to be published this year.
All PCBs were banned in the United States in the late 1970s because they were building up in the environment and in the bodies of people and wildlife. But byproducts of manufacturing are allowed as “unintentional contaminants.”
<>
The compound also keeps showing up in U.S. waterways.
PCB-11 has been found in the New York-New Jersey Harbor and the Delaware River. In the Delaware River, the load of that compound was almost double the amount of total PCBs allowable under federal rules.
In recent years, PCB-11 also has been found in the Houston Ship Canal, the Rio Grande River and San Francisco Bay, and in water at several sites in the Great Lakes region.
The new study reported that the chemical could be getting into waterways through the washing of clothes that contain the yellow pigments.
“The more studies that come out like this, we’re going to have to check out the biological impacts,” said Nukhet Aykin-Burns, an assistant professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Iowa who analyzed PCB-11’s impact on oxidative stress in cells.
“Just because we stopped production of PCBs and regulate them doesn’t mean we don’t have to worry anymore," he said. "They’re still relevant and coming from different sources now.”
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