Reading the Attic: Community-Wide PCB and Dioxin Exposure Reconstruction Near Sauget, Illinois
By Paul E. Rosenfeld, M.S., Ph.D., Principal Environmental Chemist, RoseyFields LLC, Santa Monica, California
A community, not a single plaintiff, as the unit of exposure
Some contamination cases involve an entire neighborhood exposed to the same industrial legacy over decades. In the litigation arising from Cerro Flow Products’ historic copper operations in the Sauget, Illinois area, Dr. Paul E. Rosenfeld, M.S., Ph.D. of RoseyFields LLC applied a community-wide environmental-forensics methodology built on more than a decade of his own peer-reviewed research in the same region (Custer, 2021).
Attic dust as an undisturbed historical archive
The core forensic insight is that attic dust, unlike surface soil or outdoor air, is rarely disturbed by weather, cleaning, or redevelopment, making it a long-term passive record of historical atmospheric deposition from a nearby industrial source. Working with colleagues, Dr. Rosenfeld applied this method directly in the Sauget area, sampling attic dust near former PCB-production and secondary-copper facilities for PCB and dioxin/furan content (Gonzalez et al., 2010).
Extending the method to a second contaminant class and region
The same forensic logic was applied by Dr. Rosenfeld’s research group near wood-treatment facilities elsewhere in the country, pairing attic dust sampling with human blood lipid analysis for dioxin and furan congeners to determine whether community members carried a body burden consistent with the attic dust findings (Hensley et al., 2007; Feng et al., 2010).
Methodological transparency in a novel sampling matrix
Because attic dust sampling for environmental forensics is less standardized than soil or water sampling, Dr. Rosenfeld’s group also published a methods review addressing collection protocols, statistical treatment, and quality assurance for attic dust studies, allowing the approach used in litigation to be evaluated against a peer-reviewed methodological baseline rather than an ad hoc protocol (Tam et al., 2008).
Statistical handling of a community-wide dataset
A community exposure case typically involves dozens or hundreds of individual samples with real variability in age, distance from the source, and house construction. Dr. Rosenfeld’s published statistical analysis of attic dust and blood lipid TCDD toxicity equivalency quotients demonstrates the same upper-confidence-limit and toxicity-equivalency approach used in litigation reports, applied openly in the peer-reviewed literature (Tam et al., 2008b).
The regulatory framework for PCBs
PCBs have been federally regulated under the Toxic Substances Control Act since 1979, with EPA’s PCB regulations at 40 CFR Part 761 governing manufacture, use, and cleanup of PCB-contaminated media, reflecting a regulatory judgment that PCB contamination warrants remediation independent of any single litigation (US EPA, 40 CFR Part 761).
The toxicological classification of dioxins and PCBs
IARC classifies 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-para-dioxin (TCDD) as carcinogenic to humans (Group 1), the same classification tier as benzene and diesel exhaust, based on an extensive epidemiological and mechanistic evidentiary record (IARC, 2012). EPA’s own reanalysis of dioxin toxicity has likewise reaffirmed a low-dose, non-threshold approach to dioxin risk assessment (US EPA, 2010).
Why source apportionment matters when multiple facilities are involved
Industrial areas like Sauget historically hosted multiple chemical- and metal-processing facilities operating simultaneously, raising the question of which source contributed which contaminant. Dr. Rosenfeld’s environmental-forensics practice addresses this by combining facility-specific process history, contaminant fingerprinting, and spatial gradient analysis, rather than assuming a single dominant source without supporting data.
Judicial familiarity with this class of methodology
While the Custer matter itself proceeded through the Illinois state court system in St. Clair County, the underlying historical emissions and community exposure reconstruction methodology Dr. Rosenfeld applied is the same type of analysis federal courts have separately evaluated and admitted in other matters, including the Alabama mill litigation’s treatment of his AERMOD-based community exposure work (Brantley, 2017).
From dust sample to health-risk-relevant exposure estimate
The end product of this reconstruction is not simply a contamination map; it is a quantitative estimate of historical deposition and body burden that can be compared against dose-response benchmarks from IARC, EPA, and ATSDR, giving a community exposure claim the same quantitative rigor as an individual plaintiff’s claim.
Why this matters for legacy industrial communities generally
Sauget is one of many U.S. communities that hosted heavy industry for much of the twentieth century, and attic dust reconstruction offers one of the few scientifically defensible ways to characterize what an entire neighborhood was exposed to before modern air monitoring existed. See RoseyFields.com for further detail on Dr. Rosenfeld’s environmental-forensics methodology.
References
1. Custer M, et al. v Cerro Flow Products, Inc. Case No. 0i9-L-2295, Circuit Court of the Twentieth Judicial Circuit, St. Clair County, Illinois.
2. Gonzalez J, Feng L, Sutherland A, Waller C, Sok H, Hesse R, Rosenfeld P. PCBs and dioxins/furans in attic dust collected near former PCB production and secondary copper facilities in Sauget, IL. Procedia Environ Sci. 2010:113-125.
3. Hensley AR, Scott A, Clark JJJ, Rosenfeld PE. Attic dust and human blood samples collected near a former wood treatment facility. Environ Res. 2007;105:194-197.
4. Feng L, Wu C, Tam L, Sutherland AJ, Clark JJ, Rosenfeld PE. Dioxin and furan blood lipid and attic dust concentrations in populations living near four wood treatment facilities in the United States. J Environ Health. 2010;73(6):34-46.
5. Tam LK, Wu CD, Clark JJ, Rosenfeld PE. Methods for collecting samples for assessing dioxins and other environmental contaminants in attic dust: a review. Organohalogen Compd. 2008;70:000527-000530.
6. Tam LK, Wu CD, Clark JJ, Rosenfeld PE. A statistical analysis of attic dust and blood lipid concentrations of tetrachloro-p-dibenzodioxin (TCDD) toxicity equivalency quotients (TEQ) in two populations near wood treatment facilities. Organohalogen Compd. 2008;70:002252-002255.
7. US Environmental Protection Agency. Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) Manufacturing, Processing, Distribution in Commerce, and Use Prohibitions. 40 CFR Part 761.
8. IARC Working Group on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans. Chemical Agents and Related Occupations. IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans, Vol 100F. Lyon, France: International Agency for Research on Cancer; 2012.
9. US Environmental Protection Agency. EPA’s Reanalysis of Key Issues Related to Dioxin Toxicity and Response to NAS Comments. Washington, DC: US EPA; 2010.
10. Brantley TL, et al. v International Paper Company. Civil Action No. 2:09-230-DCR-TFM, Memorandum Opinion and Order (MD Ala May 24, 2017).
11. Rosenfeld PE. RoseyFields LLC: Environmental Forensics Practice. Santa Monica, CA: RoseyFields LLC; 2026.
12. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Toxicological Profile for Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs). Atlanta, GA: US Department of Health and Human Services; 2000.
13. US Environmental Protection Agency. Exposure Analysis for Dioxins, Dibenzofurans, and Coplanar PCBs in Sewage Sludge. Washington, DC: US EPA; 2003.
14. World Health Organization. Project for the Re-Evaluation of Human and Mammalian Toxic Equivalency Factors for Dioxins and Dioxin-Like Compounds. Geneva: WHO; 2005.