Since 2006, PCBs have been studied extensively in sediment throughout the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal in East Chicago, Indiana near Lake Michigan. Most of the PCB contamination here is a product of closed Superfund sites that have been victim to improper clean-up techniques. Evidence of this is found in the abundance of Aroclor 1248, a popular PCB used in the composition of hydraulic fluid, which now scatters the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal channel. The bad news is, there are sites like these across the United States. Furthermore, most of these sites exist near resource-stricken, minority communities who are at a greater risk for several health adversities caused by this PCB contamination. When a serum test was conducted in 2008, the same time as the sediment sampling of the Indiana Harbor, children and mothers native to East Chicago were found to have exorbitant amounts of PCBs in their blood. This further shows the need for understanding air, sediment and water PCB concentrations present in one’s place of residence both outdoors and indoors.
