Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are a public health concern given evidence that they persist and accumulate in the environment and can cause toxic effects in animals and humans. However, evaluating adverse effects of PCBs in epidemiologic studies is complicated by the characteristics of PCB exposure. PCBs exist as mixtures in the environment; the mixture changes over time due to degradation, and given physicochemical differences between specific PCB congeners, the mixture that an individual is exposed to (via food, air, or other sources) is likely different from that which can be measured in biological tissues. This is particularly problematic when evaluating toxicity of shorter-lived congeners that may not be measurable by the time biological samples are collected. We review these and other issues that arise when evaluating epidemiologic studies of PCBs and discuss how epidemiology data can still be used to inform both hazard identification and dose-response evaluation.

多氯联苯 (PCB) 是一个公共卫生问题，有证据表明它们在环境中持续存在和积累，并对动物和人类造成毒性作用。然而，由于 PCB 暴露的特点，在流行病学研究中评估 PCB 的不利影响变得复杂。多氯联苯以混合物形式存在于环境中；由于降解，混合物会随着时间的推移而发生变化，并且考虑到特定 PCB 同系物之间的物理化学差异，个体（通过食物、空气或其他来源）接触到的混合物可能与生物组织中可以测量到的混合物不同。当评估寿命较短的同系物的毒性时，这尤其成问题，而这些毒性在收集生物样品时可能无法测量。我们回顾了评估 PCB 流行病学研究时出现的这些问题和其他问题，并讨论了流行病学数据如何仍可用于危害识别和剂量反应评估。