Dh Provoked By Pcbs?

[92Aotearoa]

For those without organic or bio chemistry, a polychlorinated biphenyl is like "chlorine on steroids".

Chlorine, like iodine is a halogen (i.e.: very similar chemically). Iodine is more active than Cl in some reactions but when you attach chlorine to a phenyl, the effect of sharing electrons between six carbon atoms and their substituents (made possible by the unsaturated bonds in the penyl ring) is to make the chlorine far more active than it would normally be.

So I'm wondering if PCBs could activate DH in susceptible patients. The lesions ("chloracne") caused by PCBs are very similar to DH. Maybe in the same way that those with DH are sensitized to iodine, they are also sensitized to PCBs? (i.e.: they react to much smaller exposures to PCBs than would ordinarily be required)

PCB contamination in my state (NC) was extremely widespread -deliberately dumped along 1500 miles of country roads - years later screening revealed that over 50% of the nursing mothers in the state have levels of PCBs too high to breastfeed. I would really like to be able to see statistics on the incidence of DH in this state both before and after the incident! IMHO if the level of DH tracked the increase of the PCBs in the environment here that would at the very least, be highly suggestive!

Are there any DH patients on this list that have had known exposure to PCBs and, if so, was there any apparent connection between that and their DH?