ORGANOCHLORINE COMPOUNDS IN HUMAN BRAIN

Having observed polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in brain tissue obtai ned post mortem from two men we have carried out a study of organochlo rine compounds in frontal cortex from patients with Parkinson's diseas e (PD) and from controls. No PCBs were found in any of those samples. There was no difference in the concentration of the DDT metabolite pp' -DDE in the PD brain samples. Dieldrin (HEOD) was significantly decrea sed in PD brain when analysed by lipid weight. While these findings wo uld not support the hypothesis that PCBs may contribute to the develop ment of Parkinson's disease in humans it remains possible that they ma y cause damage to the basal ganglia before being displaced from brain tissue.