Carpenter Publishes Article on Health Effects of PCBs
By Carol Olechowski
To dredge or not to dredge? That is the question this fall, as New York State awaits a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ruling on whether or not General Electric should be required to remove polyphenol bichlorides (PCBs) from the Hudson River.

As a researcher into the effects of PCBs on humans and animals, David O. Carpenter, M.D., professor of environmental health and toxicology at the University at Albany’s School of Public Health and former dean of the School, is watching the case very closely. He believes that the EPA will mandate a cleanup, either by dredging or by the use of some other technology.

With School of Public Health colleagues Rifat J. Hussain (who earned her doctorate at the School last year and is now doing post-doctoral work there), Janos Gyori (who is also affiliated with the Hungarian Academy of Science’s Balaton Limnological Research Institute), and Anthony P. DiCaprio, Carpenter recently contributed “In Vivo and In Vitro Exposure to PCB 153 Reduces Long-Term Potentiation” to Environmental Health Perspectives. EHP is published by Environmental Health Information Service, which is affiliated with the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the Department of Health and Human Services’ National Toxicology Program.

The journal article, Carpenter notes, focuses on ”an animal study of developmental exposures to PCBs, and the results are consistent with the human studies, which show that children with exposure before birth or in the first months of life have an IQ reduced by an average of 6 to 8 points.”

PCBs are electrical insulators that were used by General Electric in the manufacture of electrical transformers at its Fort Edward and Hudson Falls plants. The PCBs settled into the Hudson River, but “at the time, nobody realized they were dangerous, or that they were very persistent and resistant to decay.” Today, Carpenter contends, “there are still pure PCBs leaking into the river from the rocks under the plants, and most of what got into the river years ago is still there.”

For the study, “we used only one of the 209 chemical species of PCBs,” continues the electrophysiologist, who also studies the properties of synaptic transmission and effects of various injurious agents on the mammalian brain. “This particular one, PCB 153, has not been studied as much as others but has usually been considered non-toxic. It is present in people - in all of us - at one of the highest concentrations of any of the different PCBs.”

School of Public Health studies and those of other researchers have indicated that, in addition to reducing IQ in children, PCB 153 “changes the thyroid function in animals. It also interferes, to some degree, with the sex hormones.”

The EHP article summarizes the study of Sprague-Dawley rats “exposed by ingestion to PCB 153, mixed in corn oil and applied daily on a sweet wafer from gestational day 7 through postnatal day 21, when the pups were weaned.” The authors noted “no significant dose-related effects on fertility, birth number, and post-natal growth” at the four dose levels - ranging from 0 to 20.0 mg/kg per day - administered to adult female rats. However, “even the lowest dose of PCB 153 resulted in significant reduction in LTP,” or long-term potentiation. LTP is “believed to be at least a component of learning and memory,” given its reduction or absence in older animals and in those demonstrating diminished learning capacity.

The research, Carpenter believes, “has great implications for human exposure to PCBs.” It also builds a strong case for dredging of the Hudson, he feels.

General Electric’s position, though, is that “there is overwhelming evidence that PCBs are not associated with deaths from cancer or any other disease,” says company spokesman Mark Behan. GE bases that claim on “20 years of human health research conducted by government agencies and independent experts, among others.

“Arguably, the people most exposed to PCBs over long periods of time were those who worked with them,” Behan continues. “The largest study of PCBs and human health was conducted, at GE’s request, by a not-for-profit research organization which examined mortality records of the more than 7,000 people who worked in GE’s Hudson Falls and Fort Edward plants over a 30-year period. It was conducted by former government researcher Dr. Renate Kimbrough, who in the 1970s published the first study to allege that PCBs caused cancer in rats. Dr. Kimbrough’s study of the GE employees concluded that there had been fewer than expected deaths from cancer - or more than 90 other diseases among the employees - based on national and local mortality rates. It also corroborated three earlier studies of the same worker population conducted by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, the Harvard School of Public Health, the New York State Department of Health, and Mount Sinai Medical Center, and was published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.”

Carpenter’s own research makes the case for ridding the Hudson of PCBs. He has seen GE’s televised advertisements questioning the need for dredging and calls them “misleading”: “They show dredging the way it was done perhaps 50 years ago.” Today, with the use of a large vacuum cleaner-like device, “there is almost no stirring up of the PCBs, and much less disturbance to the environment, than those ads would imply.

“I do not believe that dredging is the ultimate solution,” Carpenter cautions; “it has some limitations.” Some of the PCBs “will never go away,” but will remain in a landfill or in the riverbed. “So it is not an optimal solution. Doing nothing is not an option, however. PCBs are extremely dangerous chemicals, and their presence in the Hudson River poses too great a hazard to human health to leave them as they are.”

The Pataki administration also believes it is not acceptable to do nothing. In mid-November, New York State Department of Environmental Conserva-tion Commissioner John P. Cahill forwarded to the EPA a letter citing the “significant threat” PCBs pose to both humans and the environment, and calling for “active remediation.”

But GE spokesman Behan maintains: “For 20 years, GE has worked with New York State and the EPA on comprehensive Hudson River cleanup projects. Our work has complemented the river’s natural processes and helped to reduce PCB levels in fish and water by 90 percent so far, with further reductions expected. GE’s cleanup projects have focused on preventing PCBs from reaching the river. By doing this, the cleaner sediment that flows into the river every day from the Hudson watershed buries old deposits of PCBs and isolates them from fish. The EPA uses fish as the best measure of the Hudson’s health because fish are seen as the most likely source of human exposure to PCBs.” According to Behan, GE has invested nearly $200 million in river cleanup and research.

Aside from the cleanup efforts, “GE for 20 years has conducted research on PCBs in the environment in the Hudson River, at its research and development laboratory in Niskayuna, and at several university research centers,” Behan points out. “GE developed a state-of-the-science computerized model of the Hudson to predict future river conditions based on 20,000 pieces of data collected on actual Hudson conditions over the last 20 years.” According to that model, “during the next 30 years, 87 percent of the reductions of PCB levels in surface sediments in the upper Hudson will come from the natural sedimentation, or cleansing, process; 10 percent will come from GE’s additional cleanup work, cutting off sources of PCBs to the river; and only 3 percent from dredging, if the EPA orders that. GE’s model has been peer reviewed and published. The EPA developed a similar model of the Hudson, and the projections are similar to GE’s.”

Behan claims that GE opposes dredging in the upper Hudson because “there is a better, more effective, and safer cleanup strategy in place and working - the current program, which has reduced PCB levels in fish by 90 percent. The goal in the Hudson is to reduce PCB levels in fish, and dredging will not reduce PCB levels in fish faster than is already happening. Dredging will, however, inflict enormous ecological harm on waterways when tons of mud, fish and other living things, habitat, spawning grounds, food sources, and wetlands are ripped out.”

In 1984, Behan recalls, the EPA rejected dredging in the upper Hudson, “saying, in part, that a major dredging project there could be ‘environmentally devastating.’ A study of 26 environmental dredging projects nationwide found that at many places, higher PCB levels in water, sediment, and fish were recorded immediately after dredging. Dredging removes mud, but it does not necessarily reduce PCB or other contaminant levels in fish, which is the goal in the Hudson River.

“Moreover,” he adds, “there is broad and longstanding public opposition to dredging. The elected leaders of more than 60 upper Hudson towns, villages, and cities have passed resolutions opposing dredging.” And a recent Zogby International poll of 809 voters in 14 counties along the Hudson found that 59 percent support GE’s current cleanup efforts. Twenty-seven percent of the respondents supported dredging; another 14 percent were unsure or favored neither approach.

Dredging is also opposed by the farm bureaus of New York State and Washington, Saratoga, and Rensselaer counties; the New York Business Council; local chambers of commerce; and other organizations. “A major dredging project in the upper Hudson could take ten to 30 years. GE’s cleanup strategy, which has been approved and overseen by New York State, is supported by the public. It involves no damage or disruption to the river or to local communities. And it is reducing PCB levels in fish as fast as dredging,” Behan observes.

Carpenter, though, feels that his research underscores the dangers of PCBs to both humans and their surroundings. The EHP article elaborates on his earlier findings on the issue of whether or not it is safe to eat fish caught in the Great Lakes. In a brief “Point/Counterpoint” item in the July/August 2000 Great Lakes Commission Advisor, he contended that “eating Great Lakes fish is clearly dangerous to the developing fetus and almost certainly has adverse health consequences even to adults.” He pointed out that PCBs and other contaminants, such as methyl mercury, pesticides, and dioxins/furans, “bioaccumulate and persist in both fish and people who consume the fish.” The Advisor article also cites other severe health consequences, including an increased risk of breast cancer in women having “a genetic trait found in 15 percent of the population,” reduced fertility in men, and low birth weights in children born to PCB-exposed mothers. In addition, Carpenter wrote that consumption of PCB-contaminated fish can lower thyroid levels, thereby altering metabolism and affecting energy levels, weight, and mental alertness; and reduce the IQs of children exposed to the chemical before or after birth.

While noting in the Advisor that “not all Great Lakes fish have equal levels of contamination,” Carpenter urged that consumption of fish taken from the lakes be “avoided by everyone.” In particular, he cautioned that children - especially girls, “who will bioconcentrate these contaminants for years and then pass them on to their own children” - and women of childbearing age avoid eating fish caught in the Great Lakes. The same holds true of fish taken from the Hudson, Carpenter adds. He is dismayed to note that, despite advisories, sports fishermen and poor people dependent upon fish to supplement their diets continue to use the river as a food source.

That is a concern because PCBs can also be taken into the body in other ways, including respiration and absorption through the skin. Although some communities along the Hudson draw drinking water from the river, municipal filtration plants “have pretty well removed PCBs from the water” before they reach people’s homes. “The problem, first of all, is with the contaminated fish; second, with the PCBs that come off the water and are released into the air; and third, with the chemicals absorbed through the skin. So the issue of kids playing on the banks of the Hudson is a serious one,” says Carpenter, an advisor to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. In that capacity, he has assisted the agency in preparing a new book, Toxicological Profiles: Polychlorinated Biphenyls, which will be released this fall. ATSDR is the federal public health bureau responsible for documenting human health effects from hazardous waste issues.

GE spokesman Behan counters that, “although the EPA is considering remedial action to address PCBs buried in the Hudson, the agency has deemed the river safe for swimming, wading, boating, and for use as a source of treated public drinking water. The sole risk posed by PCBs in the Hudson, EPA claims, relates to whether large numbers of people can reasonably be expected to eat extraordinarily large amounts of fish - approximately a half-ton of fish per individual - over a 40-year period. In our view, this is not a realistic scenario because it is illegal to possess - and therefore to consume - fish caught in the upper Hudson River.”

Behan takes issue with Carpenter’s claims about PCB-related health effects, which he says “echo the 1984 Jacobson study of children born to mothers who ate Lake Michigan fish containing PCBs. That study was seriously flawed in its selection of participants and analysis of contaminants, and was criticized in the scientific literature. Other researchers attempted to replicate the Jacobson study findings and could not do so.”

Regarding Carpenter’s comments on the link between PCBs and breast cancer, Behan cites the February 2000 issue of Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, which published the results of a Yale Cancer Center Study of 1,000 women. “Blood serum levels of PCBs and the pesticide DDE were analyzed for association with breast cancer risk. No significant difference in serum level was found between the women with breast cancer and the control group. The study, the largest to date, was funded by the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Environmental Health and Safety,” Behan says.

Carpenter stands behind his research, however, and continues to advocate for removal of the PCBs from the Hudson. “It’s unfortunate that we don’t have a less expensive technology [than dredging] for destroying them,” the doctor comments, noting that his colleagues, Professor Lawrence Tavlerides at Syracuse University and Professor Ronald Scrudato at SUNY Oswego, “have been working to develop an alternative. The only method currently used to destroy PCBs is incineration of the soil, so development of the new technology is extremely important.

“In my judgment, having an agent that reduces IQ in children, creating a permanent, lifetime reduction in their ability to learn, is a serious issue for society. So to do nothing is not an option.”

Awards

Dean Falk Elected AAAS
Fellow Professor of anthropology Dean Falk has been elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She is one of 251 new AAAS members representing educational institutions, corporations, laboratories, and observatories around the globe.

Founded in 1848, AAAS represents the world’s largest federation of scientists. The tradition of awarding the distinction of Fellow began in 1874 as a means of recognizing society members for their efforts toward advancing science or fostering applications deemed scientifically or socially distinguished.

AAAS, which uses its projects, programs, and publications to advance science for human well-being, boasts more than 143,000 members and 276 affiliated societies. In addition to conducting numerous programs in the fields of science policy, science education, and international scientific cooperation, the society publishes the prestigious peer-reviewed journal Science.

Falk has been a UAlbany faculty member since 1988. An expert on primate and human brain evolution, neuroanatomy, and hominid paleontology, she is internationally known for her research, part of which is based on data collected from primate skeletal material and endocranial casts in African, European, and American museums. Falk, a member of the University of Vienna’s Institute of Human Biology, collaborates with Professor Horst Seidler and other colleagues at that institution in the application of medical imaging to the study of middle Pleistocene hominids.

Her research on cranial blood flow and australopithecine endocasts has led Falk to develop the “radiator theory” of brain evolution, which contends that the brain size of man’s ancestors began to increase dramatically once hominids stood erect and developed a network of cranial veins capable of cooling the brain. Falk’s book Braindance, published in 1992, popularized the theory that blood vessels control brain temperature in the same way that a car radiator cools the vehicle’s engine. That same body of research also caused Falk to question the conventional interpretations of certain fossils, including that of the early hominid “Lucy.”

Falk, whose book Primate Diversity was published this year, is an invited member of the United States National Committee for the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (USNC/IUAES). She also serves on the National Advisory Committee of the Decade of Behavior 2000-2010.

Falk and the other new AAAS Fellows will be honored Feb. 17, 2001 during the organization’s annual meeting in San Francisco.

Fenton Honored
William N. Fenton of Slingerlands, professor emeritus of the Department of Anthropology, has been honored as one of the recipients of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Capital District Senior Issues Forum. Professor Fenton and the other award recipients were ho-nored at a recent ceremony at Congregation Beth Emeth, 100 Academy Road, Albany.

Called the “dean of Iroquois studies” by the Times Union in a 1996 article, Professor Fenton has had a distinguished academic and professional career. Early in his career, he was a senior ethnologist at the Smithsonian in Washington. Later, he served as assistant commissioner of the New York State Museum and Science Service. Fenton joined the University faculty in 1969 and retired in 1979. He remains a Distinguished Professor Emeritus.

The Capital District Senior Issues Forum is an interfaith community initiative of individuals and organizations brought together to identify issues and to advocate for seniors living in a variety of housing options. Now in its third year, the forum has supported programs and projects designed to address issues that are of most concern to those over the age of 85.

Mackiewicz Elected
Professor John S. Mackiewicz of the Department of Biological Sciences has been elected a life member of the Helminthological Society of Washington in recognition of his distinguished career in parasitology.

Nomination for this award was affirmed by a unanimous vote of the executive committee and members present at a recent meeting of the Society held at George Washington University. Life membership is extended to those who have “rendered conspicuous and continuous service as a member of the Society.” The committee cited, in particular, Mackiewicz’s excellent service on the Editorial Board since 1970.

Johnston Cited
Peter Johnston, chair of the Department of Reading, was recently awarded the Distinguished Reading Service Award 2000 by the New York State Reading Association in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the field of reading and to literacy in New York State.

Johnston is a researcher and director of the Exemplary Teachers Project for the Center for English Learning and Achievement (CELA). His most recent research is about what children learn as they are being taught to read and write, and how assessment practices affect teachers and their students.

Over the past 25 years, Johnston has received many awards and recognition for his numerous articles, chapters, and books, his most recent being Knowing Literacy: Constructive Literacy Assessment. His persistent and thoughtful study of the complexities of literacy acquisition for struggling and disabled readers continues to inform and shape the field.

Kizenko Honored
Nadieszda Kizenko, an assistant professor in the Department of History, has received an award for her new book A Prodigal Saint. She was awarded the 2000 Heldt prize for best book by a woman, at the annual convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies in Denver, Colo., on Nov. 11.

Recruiter Visits December 7 & 8
As director of recruiting for Northwestern Mutual Financial Network’s Milton C. Hall III agency in Latham, Tami Cordero hires financial services representatives. She also works on one of “my primary objectives: developing relationships with the School of Business and with its students and professors.”

The University does a great job of preparing students for business careers, Cordero feels; “a lot of them get involved [with Northwestern Mutual] through the School of Business internship program.” Needless to say, coursework is important, too.

However, “not all of the people who graduated from Albany [and now work for Northwestern] graduated with business degrees. Most successful people tend to come from all different opportunities and majors.” One example: Cordero herself. A sociology and psychology major, she learned about the Hall agency job from the University’s Career Development Center. She joined the firm in June 1998, one month after graduating.

Cordero noted that about 16 of the 40 people at the Hall agency are Albany grads. “We’re looking for people who are interested in their own career opportunities, are self-motivated, and have a good GPA. They should also enjoy meeting people - and want to make a great deal of money.”

Cordero will visit School of Business instructor Valentino DeMarco’s Marketing 310 (Marketing Principles and Policies) class December 7 and 8 to discuss personal selling and the Northwestern Mutual internship program. DeMarco is grateful for the interest Cordero, Hall, and Northwestern Mutual have shown in maintaining an affiliation with UAlbany. “Tami works closely with me and our students, presenting to classes, handling questions, scheduling interviews, and arranging internships. And Northwestern Mutual consistently offers our students one of the best internships available. We place students locally at the Hall agency and also at locations downstate.”

The Hall agency is now supporting the School in another way: by establishing a $2,500 marketing scholarship. The first scholarship will be awarded in May 2001.

New Faculty
By Tim Kelly

Bret Benjamin brings a combination of research interests in contemporary global political economy and a history of using computer technologies to develop innovative instructional models in the classroom as a new assistant professor in the English department.

Benjamin completed his doctorate in English last year at the University of Texas at Austin with a concentration in ethnic and Third World literatures. While there, he served as the assistant director of the Computer Writing and Research Labs, where he oversaw the daily operations for a complex teaching and research environment that focused on using information technology to improve English studies. He was also project coordinator and programmer for the award-winning Web-based courseware package, Critical Tools. Benjamin said he and his colleagues created the software to help teachers develop Web sites that supplement classroom practices by providing forums where students and instructors can converse, post resources, and engage with each other and with course materials.

Benjamin has been the co-author of four books: “Researching On-Line,” “Connections: A Guide to On-Line Writing” and the first two editions of “Teaching On-Line: Internet Conversation and Composition.” He has also published numerous articles. In addition to his concerns with information technology, Benjamin’s teaching and research interests are in the areas of Third World literatures, the rhetoric of Third World development and globalization, and theoretical approaches to post-colonial studies.

Jennifer L. Branch is currently teaching classes on “Internet and Information Access” and “The Information Environment” at the University as an assistant professor in the School of Information Science and Policy.

Branch worked as a teacher and teacher-librarian at Samuel Hearne Secondary School in Inuvik, Northwest Territories, from 1991 to 1998. She coached the school volleyball team, coordinated the school awards, supervised and raised funds for the student tour trips to London and Greece, and led the 1st Inuvik Girl Guides.

Branch completed her doctoral dissertation on the information-seeking processes of junior high students this year at the University of Alberta. She has published several articles and reviews of books. Branch has also presented material on her work in schools and school libraries at professional conferences. She is a member of the American Association of School Librarians, the American Library Association, the International Association for School Librarianship, the Association for Library and Information Science Education, and several others.

Tomek Strzalkowski has brought his diversified experience in computer languages to the University as an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science. He had been the senior scientist and team leader researching natural language and information retrieval for General Electric Co.’s Corporate Research and Development.

Strzalkowski received his doctorate in computer science from Simon Frasier University in 1986. Prior to his GE appointment, he was an assistant professor of computer science at the Courant Institute at New York University. Strzalkowski has published two books and contributed to three others. He has produced more than 65 papers for technical journals and conferences. In addition, he has been awarded a patent this year for a system that improves the accuracy of automated speech recognition, and is awaiting the approval of two more patents.

Strzalkowski has been a consultant for Boeing Computer Services and the Canadian Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Systems. He has been a member of the Industry Advisory Board at the New York State Center for Advanced Technology in Information Management at Columbia University. His research expertise includes computational linguistics, information retrieval, automated summarization, spoken dialogue systems, knowledge representation, logic programming and artificial intelligence.

AVAX Technologies Inc. at East Campus site.

Senior research technician Darlene Smith and senior research scientist Lorne Erdile staff AVAX Technologies, Inc.’s, East Campus site. The firm is developing AC (autologous cell) vaccines, personalized therapies made from a patient’s own cancer cells to induce immune responses against each patient’s own tumor. The vaccines are in clinical trials throughout the United States for melanoma and ovarian carcinoma. The AC vaccine is currently marketed for Stage III melanoma in Australia, where the company also has offices. AVAX’s East Campus location opened last April. Photo by Carol Olechowski

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