Persistent halogenated organic pollutants

Table 12.1 List of persistent halogenated organic pollutants (including CASnumber)...

Chlorinated micropoUutants are harmful for man and environment due to their toxicity, persistence, and bioaccumulation. Persistent compounds are very stable and difficult to get metabolized and mineralized by biological and chemical processes in the environment, and as a result, they have become ubiquitous in water, sediments, and the atmosphere bioaccumulation is the result of the lipophilicity of these compounds. Polychlorinated dibenzodioxins and -furans (PCDD/F) are not produced purposely like many of other chlorinated technical products, such as chlorinated biocides DDT, lindane, and toxaphene. The production and use of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), the dirty dozen has now been banned worldwide by the Stockholm protocol. It should be mentioned that about 3000 halogenated products have now been isolated as natural products in plants, microorganisms, and animals," but the total amount of these products is much smaller compared to xenobiotics. 

Stalling DL, Smith LM, Petty JD (1979) Approaches to comprehension analyses of persistent halogenated environmental contaminants. In Van Hall CE (ed) Measurement of organic pollutants in water and wastewater, ASTM STP 686 American Society for Testing and Materials, p 302... 

Among halogenated organic compounds, chlorinated compounds are the most common anthropogenic pollutants and tend to persist in the environment with longer half-... 

The San Antonio Statement on Brominated and Chlorinated Elame Retardants (DiGangi et al., 2010), agreed upon at the 30th International Symposium on Halogenated Persistent Organic Pollutants (DiGangi et al., 2010), in San Antonio, Texas, summarizes the concerns of expert scientists on PBDEs. Abont 145 scientists... 

Patterson, D.G., Jr., Welch, S.M., Focant, J.-F. and Turner, WE. (2006) The use of various gas chromatography and mass spectrometry techniques for human biomonitoring studies. Lecture at the 26th International Symposium on Halogenated Persistent Organic Pollutants, Oslo, Norway, August 21-25, 2006. 

Another group of compounds that can become enriched in soil or water comprises persistent organic chemicals, such as pesticides or other substances derived from chemical processes. Among these, halogenated ring systems are important pollutants. A research group at the Vienna University of Technology [37] has successfully screened several bacterial strains that are able to decompose chlorinated phenoxyalkanoates and anilines as well as phenolic compounds. 

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) constitute a very important class of water pollutants because of their persistence in addition, many of them are suspected of being carcinogenic. There are about 60 VOCs, including benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes ( BTEX compounds ), halomethanes, and haloethanes. The presence of some of them in water is due to anthropic activities, for example, the use of chlorinated solvents in industries and laundries, and the formation of halomethanes as by-products of water disinfectants. With respect to Italian law DL 31/01, the maximum allowable concentration (threshold) for the sum of trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene concentrations in drinking water is 10 ppb, whereas the minimum account for the sum of a set of four halogenated compounds, namely chloroform, bromoform, bromodichloromethane, and chlorodibromomethane must be as low as possible and must not exceed 30 ppb. Note that 30 ppb is equivalent to 30 Tg L-i. 

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