New research reports on the possible link between thyroid disease and PCBs
By Melanie Hundley
If you were a tot in the 1960s in the U.S., your frame of reference for PCB (polychlorinated biphenyl) chemicals may have been similar to mine. PCBs were around, but you were unaware of them. You probably did not hear about the cattle feed disaster in Michigan in 1973-74. At best, about 1980, your parents may have pointed to the big gray cylinders mounted on telephone poles (transformer pots) and told you to "never touch one of those if you find it on the ground."
Eventually more people did hear about the health hazards of PCBs, but news moved slowly in those olden days. We had no ubiquitous Internet, limited news sources, and no online MSDS sheets to share that type of information.
