La Salle Electrical Utilities Company, Morbidity Study II, La Salle, IL Final rept

摘要

The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) in conjunction with the University of Illinois at Chicago, School of Public Health, conducted a multi-year exposure/health study of former workers of the La Salle Electrical Utilities Company (EUC) Superfund site in La Salle, Illinois. This study was conducted with funding from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). The overall study consisted of three parts: a retrospective cohort mortality study of 3,305 persons who had worked at the plant; a cross-sectional morbidity study (Morbidity I) of 191 former employees and 26 community residents examining the relationship of EUC exposure and PCB levels with history of selected diseases, reproductive factors, and biologic markers; and the current Morbidity II study. The Morbidity II study reported here was a telephone interview of 596 former employees relating years of working at the plant with health outcomes in these former employees and their children. Among the children, exposure of their mothers at the plant was associated with ear infections, having attention problems, being in special education classes and endometriosis (girls only). Only the association with ear infections, however, remained significant after control for confounders and clustering within families. Among the former employees, the only association that was significant after control for confounders was breast cancer in women. The association with breast cancer was not seen in our mortality study and should be interpreted with caution.