Occupational exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in workers at companies in the Colombian electricity sector

ABSTRACT

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) comprise a family of 209 congeners that have low electrical conductivity and high thermal resistance due to their physicochemical properties and are thus widely used as dielectric oils, among other applications. Although PCBs are no longer used in dielectric oils in Colombia as of several years ago, electric transformers in Colombia might still contain PCBs, and workers might carry PCBs due to exposure from when they were still used in dielectric fluid. Thus, occupational exposure in Colombia to PCBs was evaluated by determining their concentrations in the blood plasma samples of 115 workers in the electricity sector . The sum of the six PCB indicators was between <LOD and 16.09 µg L⁻¹ (median: <0.10 µg L⁻¹, 95^th percentile: 1.30 µg L⁻¹), and the total concentration of PCBs calculated as PCB 138 + 153 + 180 × 1.7 was between <LOD and 3210.17 ng g⁻¹ lipids (median: <7.30 ng g⁻¹ , 95^th percentile: 392.79 ng g⁻¹). . One worker dedicated to transformer and capacitor maintenance activities presented a PCB value higher than the biological tolerance level of 15 µg L⁻¹. The findings of the present investigation revealed that workers in the electricity sector face chronic occupational exposure to PCBs; Finally, the results can help to improve health policies related to these contaminants in the country.

KEYWORDS:

• Persistent organic pollutants
• blood plasma
• gas chromatography-mass spectrometry
• biomonitoring
• Colombia

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development of Colombia (COL/84851-71268).

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development of Colombia [COL/84851-71268].