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When scientists at the University of Delhi in India took soil samples from a pesticide dump and compared them with samples from a cleaner control site, they reported that the soil from the waste site contained a higher concentration of gene sequences from certain bacterial groups, such as Pseudomonas, Novosphingobium and Sphingomonas, that are known to degrade common pesticides like hexachlorocyclohexane.

In addition to PCBs, the mothers and children had elevated levels of cadmium, some perfluorinated chemicals and the pesticides hexachlorocyclohexane and DDT compared with the Canadian average.