Everybody makes such a friggin stink over PCBs!! As long as you dont injest it it wont hurt you!!
I can remember dismantling several pole pigs, and plunging my arms down past my elbows in the oil to unbolt the transformer from the case, and having the wrench slip causing me to split open a knuckle on a piece of sharp metal, and taking a lunch break, wiping the oil off my hands with a dry towel, then eating a sandwich and tasting oil residue on the sandwich that I ate with my bare hands. That was about 45 years ago.
One of the dangers of PCB is that when burnt it is believed to release dioxin. One of the reasons the EPA is so paranoid about it is that it could cause a release of dioxin into the atmosphere if the building containing the transformers or capacitors were to catch fire and burn.
I once read that PCB is so pervasive world wide that when some isolated primitive tribe was discovered in the mountains of an island of Indonesia in the 60's, medical tests were run on some of the inhabitants, and they tested positive for PCB. None of the members of this tribe had ever left the immediate area. Even though the coast was less than 50 miles away down the mountain, they didn't even have a word for sea or ocean in their language. The only way the PCB could have got into their bodies was through the food chain: industrial waste > fish > birds and mammals > people.
But despite all the paranoia in recent years over radio transformers and capacitors, that is like pissing in the ocean compared to the amount of PCB introduced into the environment from the 30's to the 50's when it used to be an ingredient contained in
brake fluid, and was often contained in fluorescent ballasts.
Hydraulic fluids: Any application of hydraulic oil such as industrial equipment and machinery, commercial equipment, automotive brake fluid, etc.
Auto salvage yards, auto crushing: Hydraulic fluid, brake fluid, recycled oil, capacitors, and oil-filled electrical equipment such as some ignition coils.
PCBs were emitted in large quantities before PCB manufacturing was banned in the U.S. Between 1930 and 1970, approximately 30,000 tons were released to air, 60,000 tons to fresh and coastal waters, and 300,000 tons to dumps and landfills (HSDB, 2003). Because of their extreme chemical and thermal stability, once they are introduced to the environment they remain there for years or even decades (ATSDR, 2000).
PCBs are nonpolar and therefore are only slightly soluble. This characteristic inhibits the transport of PCBs from soil to water (groundwater or surface water) and makes them bind strongly to soils. PCBs can be transported to surface water via entrainment of contaminated soil particles in surface water runoff. In water, a small portion of PCBs will dissolve, but the majority will bind to organic particles and bottom sediments (Nagpal, 1992). Although PCBs have a strong affinity for sediment, small amounts of PCBs are released from sediments to water over time (ATSDR, 2000). Once in the water, PCBs are also taken up by small organisms and fish. PCBs accumulate in the fatty tissue of these organisms.
http://www.deq.state.or.us/lq/cu/nwr/PortlandHarbor/docs/SourcePCBs.pdfPCB is considered a
probable carcinogen for humans.
