Diabetes, Cardiovascular Disorders and 2,3,7,8‐Tetrachlorodibenzo‐p‐Dioxin Body Burden in Czech Patients 50 Years After the Intoxication

The correlation between 2,3,7,8‐tetrachlorodibenzo‐p‐dioxin (TCDD) intoxication and the parameters of metabolic impairment was examined in the last eight male survivors of 80 workers exposed to TCDD during the production of herbicides in a chemical factory in 1965–1967. Their median TCDD blood level was 112 (46–390) pg/g lipids, and the median TCDD body deposit was 3.9 (0.8–11.7) μg. This puts these patients into the most severely intoxicated group of subjects, according to back‐calculated levels of TCDD. The median TCDD blood level in eight controls was 12 pg/g (50% and two had a carotid intervention (stenting or endarterectomy). Total cholesterol levels decreased compared to the earlier study this patient group in 2008, most likely due to a more intensive use of lipid‐lowering drugs. Several metabolic parameters were higher (diabetes as much as 3.5‐fold) in the group of severely TCDD‐intoxicated subjects than in a general population of comparable age. This suggests that TCDD plays a role in the development of metabolic impairment and vascular changes.