Since 1990, the human health and environmental impacts of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) at the Akwesasne Mohawk Nation have been studied by researchers at the University at Albany, Syracuse University and the Environmental Research Center at the State University of New York (SUNY) College at Oswego. During the first 5 years, this National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Superfund program involved eight projects with a primary focus on human exposure. This interdisciplinary research program was one of seventeen projects involving sixty-nine academic/research institutions sponsored by NIEHS from 1990 to 1995.
The University at Albany program focuses on the General Motors (GM) Foundry located in Massena, New York. This is a National Priority List (NPL) Superfund site consisting of an industrial landfill contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Two additional industrial facilities in the vicinity, the Reynolds and Alcoa aluminum manufacturing plants, have also been identified as sources of PCBs and polychlorinated aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The scope of the research efforts have been expanded to include these sites.
