Great Lakes human-health concerns

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Polychlorinated biphenyls are organic chemicals that formerly had widespread use in electrical transformers and hydraulic equipment. This class of chemicals is extremely persistent in the environment and has been proven to bioconcentrate in the food chain, thereby leading to environmental and human health concerns in areas such as the Great Lakes. Because of their potential to accumulate in the food chain, PCBs were intensely regulated and subsequently prohibited from manufacture by the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) of 1976. Disposal of PCBs is tightly restricted by the TSCA o... 

However, even though exposure of biota to xenobiotics does not necessarily result in toxification of these organisms, the possibility that such compounds could enter the food chain and could therefore ultimately be consumed by the final predator — humans — has awakened serious concern over the dissemination of such compounds. A good example is provided by the concern over possible adverse effects on human health, including reproduction, that could result from the consumption of fish from the Great Lakes that may be heavily contaminated with organochlorine compounds including PCBs (Swain 1991). 

The International Joint Commission (U.S.-Canada) under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement undertook a safety review of detergent builders which encompassed both human health and environmental aspects. The Task Force on the Health Effects of Non-NTA Detergent Builders of the IJC s Great Lakes Science Advisory Board concluded that "the use of sodium silicate in detergents poses no hazard to man" ( ). A separate Task Force on the Ecological Effects of Phosphate Replacements has not yet issued a report, but it is understood to have concluded that there is no cause for concern ( 5). 

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