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INTRODUCTION In 1968, more than 1,500 persons in western Japan were in tox ica ted by consuming a commercial r ice oil contaminated w i th Kanechlor 400 (KC-q00) , a Japanese b rand of po lych lor ina ted b ipheny ls (PCBs) (1 -2 ) . The causal oil was found to contain not only PCBs but also ve ry tox ic po lych lo r i hated d ibenzofurans (PCDFs) (3) and po lych lor ina ted qua te rpheny ls (PCQs) wi th yet unc lar i f ied tox i c i t y (4 -6 ) . In 1979, eleven years a f te r the Japanese inc ident (Yusho ) , a s imi lar mass food poisoning recu r red in the Centra l Taiwan and the pat ients to ta l led neary 2,000. The cooking oil consumed by the pat ients was also contaminated wi th PCBs, PCDFs, and PCQs (7 -9 ) . To fu l l y unders tand the e t io logy of both po ison ings, i t is necessary to inves t iga te i f the two tox ic r ice oi ls used in Japan and Taiwan contain d i f f e ren t components of PCBs and PCDFs, as PCBs and PCDFs consist of many congeners . Above al l , examinat ion of PCDF components is ve ry impor tan t , because some PCDF congeners are much more tox ic than those of PCBs (10) . We analyzed samples of r ice oil which caused the poisoning in Taiwan and the blood from the pat ients for PCB and PCDF congeners and compared these resu l ts w i th those of Japanese cases (3, 11-12). We also est imated the concent ra t ions of PCQs in both the r ice oi ls . |
