Title: Epidemic kepone poisoning in chemical workers.

POPLINE Document Number: 018198

Author(s):

Cannon SB
Veazey JM Jr
Jackson RS
Burse VW
Hayes C
Straub WE
Landrigan PJ
Liddle JA

Source citation:

American Journal of Epidemiology, 1978 Jun;107(6):529-37.

Abstract:

From March 1974-July 1975, 76 (57%) of 133 persons who had worked at a pesticide plant that produced Kepone, a chlorinated hydrocarbon insecticide, contracted a previously unrecognized clinical illness characterized by nervousness, tremor, weight loss, opsoclonus, pleuritic and joint pain, and oligospermia. Illness incidence rates for production workers (64%) were significantly higher than for nonproduction personnel (16%). The mean blood Kepone level for workers with illness was 2.53 ppm and for those without disease 0.60 ppm (p<0.001). Blood Kepone levels in current workers (mean, 3.12 ppm) were higher than those in former employees (1.22 ppm). Blood Kepone levels for workers in nearby businesses and for residents of a community within 1.6 km of the plant ranged from undetectable to 32.5 ppb. Illness attributable to Kepone was found in wives of 2 Kepone workers; there was no apparent association between frequency of symptoms and proximity to the plant in the survey of the community population. (author's modified)

Keywords:

Occupations
Morbidity
Epidemics
Complications
Central Nervous System Effects
Human Resources
Economic Factors
Diseases
Central Nervous System
Physiology
Biology