It's hard to imagine the man whose body has carried the highest levels of PCBs ever recorded on the planet as one of the lucky ones. But a former Westinghouse Electric Corp. worker and client of Bloomington, Indiana attorney David McCrea would seem to fit the definition.

"They tested the workers in 1977 for PCB blood levels," McCrea said during a recent interview. "One worker tested 3,450 parts per billion in his blood. The background level is five."

But despite his historic toxicological status, this particular worker is alive, which a September 2005 study from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) says makes him a survivor. His coworkers are dying from brain and skin cancer.

"Among those working (more than) 90 days (in the Westinghouse plant), both melanoma and brain cancer were elevated, especially for women," the study says.

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Published in the September 2005 edition of the scientific journal Environmental Health Perspectives, the NIOSH study confirms the results of a 1992 study that analyzed Westinghouse worker mortality through 1984. It found "excess melanoma and brain cancer" in the 3,569 Westinghouse workers exposed to PCBs.

The 2005 study re-examined Westinghouse worker death rates through Dec. 31, 1998, adding 14 years of new data to the old. It adds: "Other studies of PCB-exposed individuals have found excess non-Hodgkins lymphoma, rectal cancer and liver, biliary tract, and gall bladder cancer."


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Westinghouse workers like McCrea's client were exposed to PCBs ­ polychlorinated biphenyls ­ between 1957 and 1977 while assembling and testing electrical capacitors at the company's Curry Pike plant. Capacitors are insulated canisters that store flowing electricity. They are most commonly seen atop light poles.

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