Reference summary — not medical advice or a personal risk estimate.
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)
Summary
Industrial chemicals banned for decades but persistent in the environment. Associated with melanoma and lymphoma.
Detail
PCBs are chlorinated industrial chemicals banned or restricted in most industrialised countries by the late 1970s and 1980s, and globally under the Stockholm Convention from 2001. They remain present in older transformers, sealants and contaminated sediments. Group 1 with sufficient evidence for melanoma and limited evidence for non-Hodgkin lymphoma and breast cancer. Today's exposure is largely through contaminated fish from affected waterways.
Regional relevance
global
Sources
Consumer references
Third-party tools some readers use alongside primary evidence. Meyron doesn't endorse them; we link them because you'll otherwise hit them anyway.
- California Prop 65 list
State of California's list of chemicals known to cause cancer or reproductive harm.