Comparison of clinical picture between Yusho/Yucheng cases and occupational PCB poisoning cases

Literature review on clinical picture was made on two food poisoning episodes of Yusho and Yucheng in comparison with occupational PCB exposures. It was found that the dose-response relationship is quite different between Yusho/Yucheng patients and workers occupationally exposed to PCBs, when PCB levels in blood were taken as a common indicator of exposure intensity; the clinical manifestations were much severer in the former than in the latter, even when blood PCB levels were comparable. This conclusion is in support of the suggestions that chemicals such as polychlorinated dibenzofurans should have played an important role in the etiology of Yusho and Yucheng.