California sea lions have high levels of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in their blubber. Animals affected by domoic acid fast and refeed during their rehabilitation. We studied the effect of decreases in total body mass (16 +/- 7% of initial body mass) on blubber POP contaminant concentrations and estimated POP burdens during fasting (12 +/- 5 days) in 19 California sea lions. The effect...

Optical properties of biphenyl difluoroboron β-diketonates were studied in poly(lactic acid) (PLA) blends. Increased conjugation lowered the emission energy, decreased the singlet-triplet energy gap and yielded blue thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF). The properties of these biphenyl dyes may inform organic light emitting diode (OLED) and bioimaging agent design.

This Executive Summary to the Endocrine Society's second Scientific Statement on environmental endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) provides a synthesis of the key points of the complete statement. The full Scientific Statement represents a comprehensive review of the literature on seven topics for which there is strong mechanistic, experimental, animal, and epidemiological evidence for endocr...

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are widespread environmental contaminants found in seafood and dairy products. PCBs and PBDEs are structurally similar chemicals and affect thyroid hormone function and behavior in children and laboratory rodents. Although coexposure frequently exists, the in vivo developmental effects of combined exposure to PCBs and P...

The records of the health effects caused by some accidental exposure and findings from medical examination in cases exposed to polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) as well as to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) and their derivatives polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDF) and dibenzodioxins (PCDD) have provided some information for the recognition and classification of their toxicity in humans. The most ...

Seasonal feeding behavior and high fidelity to feeding areas allow humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) to be used as biological indicators of regional contamination. Biopsy blubber samples from male individuals (n = 67) were collected through SPLASH, a multinational research project, in eight North Pacific feeding grounds. Additional male samples (n = 20) were collected from one North Atla...

Concentrations and patterns of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in the blubber of the five most common toothed whales off the Northwest Iberian Peninsula (NWIP), specifically common dolphin, long-finned pilot whale, harbour porpoise, striped dolphin and bottlenose dolphin, were investigated. The study revealed that differences in PCB and PBDE concentra...

Valid exposure assessment and biomonitoring of toxicants rely on standardized specimen collection, handling, storage, and measurement. In a study designed to determine organochlorine concentrations in blood samples, we recruited participants from registered anglers in Michigan. After participants were interviewed, blood was collected from study subjects, either at home by a phlebotomist or in a...

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and organochlorine compounds (OCs) were determined in the blubber of male finless porpoises (Neophocaena phocaenoides) collected in 1990 and 2000/01 from the South China Sea. Among the organohalogen compounds analyzed, DDTs and PCBs were the predominant contaminants in the porpoises, ranging from 26,000 to 260,000 and 1400 to 28,000 ng/g lipid wt., respect...