Chapter 2.4, Problem 145E

In each of Exercises 2.140–2.149, we have provided a graphical display of a data set. For each exercise, state whether the distribution is (roughly) symmetric, right skewed, or left skewed.

2.145 PCBs and Pelicans. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), industrial pollutants, are known to be carcinogens and a great danger to natural ecosystems. As a result of several studies, PCB production was banned in the United States in 1979 and by the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants in 2001. One study, published in 1972 by R. W. Risebrough, is titled ‘‘Effects of Environmental Pollutants Upon Animals Other Than Man’’ (Proceedings of the 6th Berkeley Symposium on Mathematics and Statistics, VI, University of California Press, pp. 443–463). In that study, 60 Anacapa pelican eggs were collected and measured for their shell thickness, in millimeters (mm), and concentration of PCBs, in parts per million (ppm). Following is a relative-frequency histogram of the PCB concentration data.