Developmental neurotoxicity of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBS): cognitive and psychomotor functions in 7-month old children

Winneke, Gerhard; Bucholski, A.; Heinzow, Birger; Krämer, Ursula; Schmidt, Eberhard; Walkowiak, Jens; Wiener, Jörg-Andreas; Steingrüber, Hans-Joachim

doi:10.1016/s0378-4274(98)00334-8

Cited by 142 publications

(94 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…The German study was the first to report a link between PCB exposure and Bayley MDI scores. In contrast, other groups have reported significant negative associations between prenatal PCB exposure and Fagan test scores Jacobson et al 1985), but there was no association between PCB exposure and Fagan test scores in the German cohort (Winneke et al 1998). The reasons for this discrepancy are unclear.…”

Section: The German Cohortmentioning

confidence: 78%

“…The reasons for this discrepancy are unclear. The investigators suggest that the lack of an association on the Fagan test could be due to the low test-retest and inter-rater reliability of the Fagan test in their study (Winneke et al 1998). However, when exposure is near background and effect sizes are small, it is not unusual for the outcomes that are most affected to vary from study to study.…”

Section: The German Cohortmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…It is interesting that PCBrelated impairments in infant cognition have now been reported in two fish exposure cohorts, both of which used the Fagan Test of Infant Intelligence Jacobson et al 1985). Meanwhile, no impairments in infant cognition were observed in three other cohorts exposed to PCBs from background environmental sources in North Carolina Rogan and Gladen 1991), the Netherlands (KoopmanEsseboom et al 1996), and Germany (Winneke et al 1998). The studies in North Carolina and the Netherlands used the MDI from the Bayley Scales of Infant Development to measure cognitive development in infancy, whereas the German study used the Fagan test.…”

Section: The Oswego Cohortmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In 1993, the European Union provided funding to expand the Dutch PCB/dioxin study into a transnational, multicenter cooperative study, which included a German cohort in Düsseldorf and a Danish cohort in the Faroe Islands (Winneke et al 1998). The German cohort consisted of 171 mother-infant pairs consecutively recruited from the obstetric wards of three Düsseldorf hospitals in 1993 (Winneke et al 1998). Only first-or second-born infants from Germanspeaking families with Apgar scores of at least 7 and no illnesses or complications during pregnancy or delivery were included.…”

Section: The German Cohortmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The German children were assessed on the Fagan Test of Infant Intelligence at 7 months of age, the Bayley Scales of Infant Development at 7, 18, and 30 months of age, and the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) and Heidelberg Test for Language Development at 42 months of age. The findings from 7 months of age have been published (Winneke et al 1998).…”

Section: The German Cohortmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of PCB exposure on neuropsychological function in children.

Schantz

Widholm

Rice

2003

Environ Health Perspect

451

294

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In the last decade advances in the analytic methods for quantification of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have resulted in widespread availability of congener-specific analysis procedures, and large amounts of data on PCB congener profiles in soil, air, water, sediments, foodstuffs, and human tissues have become available. These data have revealed that the PCB residues in environmental media and human tissues may not closely resemble any of the commercial PCB mixtures, depending on source of exposure, bioaccumulation through the food chain, and weathering of PCBs in the environment. At the same time, toxicological research has led to a growing awareness that different classes of PCB congeners have different profiles of toxicity. These advances in analytic techniques and toxicological knowledge are beginning to influence the risk assessment process. As the data from ongoing PCB studies assessing the mediators of neurobehavioral outcomes in children are published, the weight of evidence for PCB effects on neurodevelopment is growing. Studies in Taiwan, Michigan (USA), New York (USA), Holland, Germany, and the Faroe Islands have all reported negative associations between prenatal PCB exposure and measures of cognitive functioning in infancy or childhood. The German study also reported a negative association between postnatal PCB exposure and cognitive function in early childhood--a result that had not been found in previous studies. Only one published study in North Carolina (USA) has failed to find an association between PCB exposure and cognitive outcomes. Despite the fact that several more recent studies have used congener-specific analytic techniques, there have been only limited attempts to assess the role of specific PCB congeners or classes of congeners in mediating neurodevelopmental outcomes. From a statistical standpoint, attempts to determine the role of individual congeners in mediating outcomes are hampered by the fact that concentrations of most individual congeners are highly correlated with each other and with total PCBs. From a toxicological standpoint, these efforts are hampered by the fact that many of the PCB congeners present in human tissues have never been studied in the laboratory, and their relative potency to produce nervous system effects is unknown. More complete information on the health effects of various congeners or congener classes would allow more informed scientific and risk assessment decisions.

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Section: The German Cohortmentioning

confidence: 78%

Section: The German Cohortmentioning

confidence: 97%