Impact of legacy and unintentionally produced polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in effluents from two wastewater treatment plants in rivers near Barcelona, Spain.

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are a family of 209 congeners listed as Persistent Organic Pollutants in the Stockholm Convention. Although there has been a lot of focus on those congeners present in the Aroclor or Clophen technical mixtures commercialized in the past (legacy PCBs), other industrial processes such as paint and pigment production can generate other congeners as byproducts (Unintentionally Produced PCBs or UP-PCBs). The present study focuses on the analysis of 72 PCB congeners (including 42 UP-PCBs) in the two major rivers surrounding the city of Barcelona -Llobregat and Besós rivers-, and their levels in two wastewater treatment plants during the production of effluents and reclaimed water.

[IGG4-related diseases in endocrinology].

Immunoglobulin-G4-related disease (IgG4-RD) is a chronic immunomediated pathology of different organs of local or systemic nature, which has been established as a separate clinical entity in the early 2000s and is characterized by storiform fibroid inflammation of the affected tissues, their increase, and elevated serum immunoglobulin-G4 (IgG4) levels. The most common manifestations of the disease are major salivary and lacrimal gland enlargement, lymphadenopathy and type 1 autoimmune pancreatitis (AIP1), however, other organs may be also involved (the thyroid, eyes, meninges, heart, lungs, kidneys, aorta, upper airways, mesentery, etc.).

Specificity of morphologic changes in target organs, associated with exposure to coal rock dust and fluorine compounds.

The studies revealed specificity of morphologic changes in target organs, depending on acting occupational hazard. Evidences are that inhalation of coal rock dust causes irreversible sclerotic and degenerative changes mostly in lungs and bronchi even on 6th week of the experiment. In liver, changes in parenchyma and stroma are controlled by reparative processes by 9th week.

[Specificity of cellular response to various occupational toxicants].

The article covers study concerning influence of coal rock dust and high fluorine concentrations on energy metabolism and oxidation-reduction reactions in blood WBC of experimental rats. The authors demonstrated that the cells vary in response to long action of coal rock dust and high fluorine concentrations.

[Tissue morphological changes in experimental anthrasilicosis].

Anthrasilicosis was experimentally stimulated by inhaled inoculation. Various degrees of morphological changes were detected depending on the time of inoculation and the stage of the pathological process: the changes were early observed in the lung and liver, which became worse by week 12 of inoculation; from week 6 these were in the heart and kidney, which was indicative of systemic disorders in response to dust exposure.