| Environmental Health Issues Yueliang L. Guo,1 George H. Lambert,2 and Chen-Chin
Hsu3 1Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, National
Cheng Kung University Medical College, Tainan, Taiwan; 2Department
of Pediatrics, UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick,
New Jersey; and 3Department of Psychiatry, National Cheng Kung
University Medical College, Tainan, Taiwan Abstract
This article reviews the findings in children exposed to various levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and related compounds in utero and early postnatally. Yucheng ("oil-disease") mothers were Taiwanese women exposed to PCBs and their heat-degradation products from the ingestion of contaminated rice oil in 1979. Children of these mothers were born growth retarded, with dysmorphic physical findings, and delayed cognitive development compared with unexposed children. In this article, findings in Yucheng children born between 1978 and 1985 are summarized and compared with two other well-documented cohorts of children prenatally exposed to different levels of PCBs. Results of the investigation in Yucheng children will provide important information about the toxicities, health effects, and mechanisms of PCB/PCDF exposure and demonstrate that the developing human is more sensitive than the adult to the toxic effects of these chemicals. -- Environ Health Perspect 103(Suppl 6) :112-122 (1995) Key words: polychlorinated biphenyls, in utero exposure, food contamination, teratogens, dioxinlike chemicals, cognitive development, growth, endocrine
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