54 The Open Environmental Pollution & Toxicology Journal, 2009, 1, 54-65 1876-3979/09 2009 Bentham Open Open Access What We Learned from the Study of Exposed Population to PCBs and Pesticides Pavel Langer 1,* , Anton Koan 2 , Mária Tajtáková 3 , Tomá Trnovec 2 and Iwar Klime 1 1 Institute of Experimental Endocrinology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia; 2 Department of Toxic Or- ganic Pollutants, Slovak Medical University, Bratislava, Slovakia; 3 Clinic of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, P.J. afárik University, Koice, Slovakia Abstract: During previous fifteen years several field surveys were carried out in the large area subjected to environmental pollution by polychlorinated biphenyls and pesticides. The attention has been focused to the analyses of organochlorine (OCs) levels in environmental (superficial waters, air, soil, wildlife, foods) and human samples. Among adverse health ef- fects the attention has been focused to thyroid volume and thyroid autoimmune disorders, pituitary-thyroid interrelations, metabolic disorders and diabetes in adults and to cognitive, behavioral and psychoneuromotoric disorders, impairment of hearing apparatus and dental defects in schoolchildren. Original data were obtained showing possible transgenerational transmission of certain adverse health effects possibly by previous prenatal and perinatal exposure of young adults to high organochlorine levels of their mothers. In participants from heavily polluted area with high blood organochlorine levels a significantly higher prevalence of adverse health signs was found compared to those from the area with considerably lower pollution. However, considerable attention was also paid to the problem of individual susceptibility to adverse health effects. INTRODUCTION Extensive evidence showed that long-range atmospheric transport of persistent organochlorinated pollutans is one of the main vectors for their translocation far away from the sides where they were produced, while the open ocean may serve as a final sink for such chemicals. Nowadays, there is a growing number of information about a global pollution by organochlorines (OCs) and about their adverse health effects. However, in addition to such global pollution there exist several reservoirs with considerably high OCs level resulting from dumping of industrial waste such a Baltic Sea, Great Lakes, Hudson Bay etc. During the past 5-6 decades Slovakia has been also sub- jected to heavy industrial and agricultural pollution due to environmental negligence of previous regime. Since any scientific or public surveys have been strictly banned, the opportunity to search for possible adverse health effects be- came possible as late as in early nineties. First survey carried out across the whole territory of Slo- vakia [1,2] showed considerably high serum levels of DDE (dichlorophenyl-dichloroethylene) with median of 6060 and range of 1300-34,800 ng/g lipid and for HCB (hexachloro- benzene) of 5380 and 160-23,200 ng/g, respectively. At the same time the sum of 15 most abundant PCB congeners in western and central Slovakia was considerably lower (me- dian 2630, range 460-4350 ng/g) than that in eastern Slova- *Address correspondence to this author at the Institute of Experimental Endocrinology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Vlárska 3, 833 06 Bratislava, Slovakia; Tel: +421-2-54772800; Fax: +421-2 -54774247; E-mail: pavel.langer@savba.sk kia (median 3640, 1160-9200 ng/g) which apparently origi- nated from the factory Chemko discharging the chemical waste to the Laborec river without any preventive measures. This further resulted in heavy waterborn and airborn pollu- tion of air, soil, superficial and underground waters, fish, wildlife and food chain [3-7] Recently, also high level of the same substances was found in the cord blood and cord tissue in newborns from the same area [8-10]. Within the second survey in 1998 the 15PCBs in serum of 101 mostly exposed workers of Chemko factory from polluted area (POLL) was of 7300 ± 871 ng/g (mean ± SE) compared to that found in 205 referent adults (1230 ± 62 ng/g) from the area located about 60 kilometers upwind and upstream which we selected as the area of background pollu- tion (BCGR). Although we could not avoid a certain spill- over between those two areas, still a striking difference in OCs level was found within the third extensive survey of 2046 adults in 2001 [11, 12], in which 1008 subjects from POLL showed 5 % to 95 % PCBs level range of 670-9100 ng/g compared to 1038 subjects from BCGR with respective level of 350-1700 ng/g. Moreover, the respective levels of DDE were 550-8200 vs. 350-4500 ng/g and these of HCB of 80-2900 and 100-2200 ng/g thus supporting unavoidable and persisting pesticide pollution of the area larger than that pol- luted by PCBs. Sum of dioxins, furans and dioxin-like co- planar PCBs in BCGR showed a median of 20.3 pg TEQ/g lipid (25 % to 75 % level range of 15.7 to 27.4 pg TEQ/g), while the respective values for POLL were 24.4 pg TEQ/g (25 % to 75 % range of 15.7 to 49.3 pg TEQ/g), thus consid- erably higher level in upper two quartiles of POLL. Since the beginning our attention has been focused to strikingly high PCBs level in fish from polluted Laborec river and Sirava lake (mean 15PCB congeners level found