This is apparently from the Syracuse
News out of Syracuse NY and is from
one of the researchers who holds a
seat on the Anniston PCB Consortium
at Jacksonville University in Alabama.

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Upstate Scientists Link PCBs, Diabetes

SUNY Upstate researchers study a PCB-producing town in Alabama and find a greater risk.

Friday, May 23, 2008

By James T. Mulder
Staff writer


PCBs, toxic chemicals found nearly everywhere on the planet, may be fueling the diabetes epidemic, according to a study by SUNY Upstate Medical University researchers.

Preliminary findings of the study show the risk of developing diabetes is four times higher among people, ages 35 to 54, exposed to above-average levels of polychlorinated biphenyls - PCBs for short.

"I tend to be one of those scientists who says, 'If there's smoke, we should check out if there's a fire,' " said Allen Silverstone, one of three Upstate researchers involved in the study. "We found a fire here."

Silverstone, Dr. Ruth Weinstock and Paula Rosenbaum studied the prevalence of diabetes among residents of Anniston, Ala. PCBs were manufactured in Anniston from 1929 until the early 1970s and high levels of PCBs still exist in the community.

The Upstate researchers were part of a consortium of investigators from universities across the country examining different health effects of PCBs in Anniston. The consortium's work was paid for by a $3.2 million grant from the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Silverstone, a professor of microbiology and immunology, has been involved in the Anniston study since 2003.

PCBs are mixtures of up to 209 compounds containing carbon, hydrogen and chlorine in different patterns. PCBs were widely used in a variety of equipment and consumer products, such as electrical transformers and capacitors, carbonless carbon paper, paint, chlor- inated rubbers, plastics, sealants, caulking, adhesives, glues, tapes and other items.

The federal government banned the manufacture and use of PCBs in 1976 for any application that was not totally enclosed because of growing evidence of their health and environmental risks. PCBs are believed to cause cancer.

Even though they are no longer made, PCBs are in the air, food, water and soil. Onondaga Lake and many former industrial sites in the Syracuse area were polluted with these chemicals.

Silverstone estimates about half of the 1.5 billion pounds of PCBs that were manufactured are "still kicking around in the environment."

The number of people with diabetes worldwide has grown from 30 million to more than 246 million over the past 20 years. People with diabetes cannot produce or properly use insulin, a hormone needed to convert sugar, starches and other food into energy. Diabetes is a leading cause of blindness, amputations in adults and kidney failure. Many people with the disease die of heart attacks and strokes.

Much of the increase in diabetes has been blamed on the dramatic rise in obesity. Silverstone and his colleagues, however, suspected an environmental factor also was behind the diabetes surge.

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END of News Release

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