Welcome to the Portal for the PCB Workshops

A Fifth PCB Workshop, entitled, "New Knowledge Gained from Old Pollutants", was held May 18 - 22, 2008 in Iowa City, IA, the home of the University of Iowa Superfund Basic Research Program. Over 140 scientists from many disciplines, concerned with the physical and chemical as well as the biomedical aspects of the detection, movement, metabolism, toxicity, remediation and risk assessment of PCBs, participated in the Workshop. A primary objective of the 2008 Workshop was to bring these scientists together in one location to encourage interactions and the exchange of information. Session were held on: Emissions and transport of PCBs in natural and urban systems, Chiral aspects of PCBs transport, metabolism and distribution, New aspects of environmental metabolism: From microbes to plants to mammals, Reproductive, developmental and cardiovascular effects of PCBs, Anniston: The most severe PCB community exposure, and TEFs: New and Novel approaches; Implications for Risk Assessment. A second major goal of this Workshop was to compose a new up-to-date compendium on the very latest findings related to the chemistry and biology of PCBs and their risk to human health. The Workshop presentations and the reports to follow will be an unbiased statement of the state of our knowledge and not only a summary of any one contributor's own research. A third goal, and this arises out of the history of the Workshop, was to bring together scientists and researchers from North America together with scientists, researchers and regulators from Central and Eastern Europe, locations where areas of contamination with PCBs present current hazards and challenges. Locations of the international PCB Workshops alternate every two years between the United States and Central & Eastern Europe to allow for maximal participation of a diverse scientific community and discussion of the world-wide health and policy issues associated with PCB contamination.

A Fourth PCB Workshop in Zakopane, Poland, September 6 - 10, 2006, was attended by 118 participants from around the world. The Program consisted of three days of English - language sessions covering topics from analytical chemistry to risk and policy issues. An emphasis of the meeting was new mechanisms of toxicity for this class of pollutants. A Polish language session preceding the general meeting served as an introduction to the topics for local participants. There was also a Polish language summary session after the meeting.  The format of alternating between North American and European sites, in a two-year rhythm, appears to have found resonance among those who have regularly supported the Workshops.  The European sites allow for the participation of scientists who work on and in heavily contaminated areas to participate and to present data that their North American colleagues would likely never hear.  The free exchange of history/sites of environmental contamination, history of production of persistent compounds, coupled with new detection and remediation technologies, and the newest interpretations of toxification mechanisms, all in one meeting, continues to be appealing. 

The Third PCB Workshop was held in Champaign/Urbana Illinois, June 13-15, 2004; Larry Hansen served as the local host and chair of the local organizing committee. That meeting was well attended, with 131 paid registrants. Plenary talks have been published in a book format by the University of Illinois Press. The book is entitled "PCBs Human and Environmental Disposition and Toxicology", and is edited by Larry G. Hansen and Larry W. Robertson. Reports based on the poster presentations were published by the journal Toxicological and Environmental Chemistry (Taylor & Francis).

           
The Second PCB Workshop was held in Brno, Czech Republic, May 7-11, 2002, with Prof. Ivan Holoubek serving as the local host and chair of the local organizing committee.  Although Brno is somewhat remote, it was nevertheless well attended, especially by Central and Eastern European researchers and regulators.  There were 152 paid participants, with the majority being from Central and Eastern Europe.  A strength of the Brno meeting was the exchange of new information.  The North Americans learned about historic commercial production of PCBs and related compounds, historic and new sources of environmental contamination, while the Eastern Europeans were quite interested in new technologies for analysis and clean-up.  Many new research collaborations were founded that have led to the exchange of students and postdocs, and research papers.  The proceedings of that meeting were published in Fresenius Environmental Bulletin.

In the 2000 Dr. Robertson and his colleagues at the University of Kentucky hosted the First PCB Workshop, entitled “Recent Advances in Environmental Toxicology and Health Effects of PCBs,” which was held in Lexington, Kentucky (April 9-12, 2000).  That meeting was sponsored by the NIEHS/EPA Superfund Basic Research Program and was well-attended (just under 200 paid registrants) by scientists from academe, industry and government.  A book, entitled “PCBs Recent Advances in Environmental Toxicology and Health Effects”, edited by Larry Robertson and Larry Hansen, grew out of that effort and was published by the University of Kentucky Press.  The book contains about 30 review articles compiled by the speakers as well as some 30 proceedings chapters, and is still in print. 

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