Polychlorinated biphenyls monitoring

Figure 13.1 Monitor (FID) (a) and analytical (ECD) (b) channel responses for PCB congeners in Aroclor 1254, showing selection of the six heart-cut events Frr-st columns, HT8 second columns, BPX5. Reprinted from Journal of High Resolution Chromatography, 19, R. M. Kinghorn et al., Multidimensional capillar-y gas chr omatography of polychlorinated biphenyl marker compounds , pp. 622-626, 1996, with per-mission from Wiley-VCH.

Although the major concern about the fate of organic pollntants in soil has been about pesticides in agricultural soils, other scenarios are also important. The disposal of wastes on land (e.g., at landfill sites) has raised questions about movement of pollutants contained in them into the air or neighboring rivers or water conrses. The presence of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) or PAHs in snch wastes can be a significant source of pollution. Likewise, the disposal of some industrial wastes in landfill sites (e.g., by the chemical industry) raises questions about movement into air or water and needs to be carefully controlled and monitored. 

Wen S, Yang F, Li JG, Gong Y, Zhang XL, Hui Y, Wu YN, Zhao YF, Xu Y (2009) Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) monitored by tree bark in an e-waste recycling area. Chemosphere 74(7) 981-987. doi 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2008.10.002... 

Veith, G.D., D.W. Kuehl, E.N. Leonard, F.A. Puglisi, and A.E. Lemke. 1979. Polychlorinated biphenyls and other organic chemical residues in fish from major watersheds of the United States, 1976. Pestic. Monitor. Jour. 13 1-11. 

McLane, M.A.R., E.H. Dustman, E.R. Clark, and D.L. Hughes. 1978. Organochlorine insecticide and polychlorinated biphenyl residues in woodcock wings, 1971-72. Pestic. Monitor. Jour. 12 22-25. 

Hargesheimer EE. 1984. Rapid determination of organochlorine pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls, using selected ion monitoring mass spectrometry. J Assoc Off Anal Chem 67(6) 1067-1075. 

The formation of polar metabolites from nonpolar materials may actually facilitate monitoring programs—in many cases the polar chemicals are highly concentrated in certain body fluids such as bile and urine. On the other hand, materials such as certain cyclodienes and polychlorinated biphenyls, which are very lipid soluble and resistant to metabolism, may accumulate and these chemicals may persist in the environment and may be transferred via the food chain to man. There is also interest in these biotransformation processes in lower organisms since the simplicity of these systems may lead to a better understanding of the phylogenetic development of xenobiotic metabolism. 

McCarthy, J.F. Southworth, G.R. Palmer, J.A. Ham, K.D. 2000, Time-integrated, flux-based monitoring using semipermeable membrane devices to estimate the contribution of industrial facilities to regional polychlorinated biphenyl budgets. Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 19 352-359. 

TandUch, R. Vrana, B. Balaz, S. 2003, Monitoring of Polychlorinated Biphenyls in Slovakian Freshwater Sediments Use of Semipermeable Membrane Devices. In The Utilization of Bioremediation to Reduce Soil Contamination Problems and Solutions Sasek, V., Glaser, J., Baveye, P. Eds. Kluwer Academic Publishers Dordrecht, The Netherlands 221-226. 

GC-EI-MS permits the direct analysis of mixtures, e.g., to analyze synthetic byproducts an advantage that made GC-EI-MS benchtop instruments become widespread in modem synthetic laboratories. The GC-EI-MS combination is especially successful in monitoring environmental pollutants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polychlorinated dibenzo-dioxins (PCDDs), polychlorinated dibenzofuranes (PCDFs), or other volatile organic compounds (VOCs). 

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have been known for sometime as persistent pollutants, which can be readily bioaccumulated through the food chain causing well-documented toxic effects in number of species including humans [191]. Consequently, PCBs are commonly routinely monitored as potential industrial pollutants. Due to their environmental persistence and toxicity, detection limits in the ng ml-1 region are generally required. Consequently, such work has generally required solvent or solid extraction and concentration steps prior to separation by GC in conjunction with electron capture detection, or mass... 

Lopez-Avila et al. [107] showed that microwave-assisted extraction of pesticides and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from soil is a viable alternative to Soxhlet extraction and needs a smaller sample volume and extraction time [108,109]. These techniques have also been compared in the case of chlorophenols. Lopez-Avila et al. compared microwave-assisted extraction with electron capture gas chromatography to ELISA for the determination of polychlorinated biphenyls in soils. Both techniques are applicable to field screening and monitoring applications. Microwave-assisted extraction [111, 112] and solid-phase microextraction [113] have been applied to the extraction of pesticides from soil. It was observed by these and other workers [114] that the selectivity of microwave-assisted extraction is highly dependent on the soil composition. 

Washington Efforts to enhance environmental monitoring and analyses of mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls, as well as other persistent toxicants. 

As polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are compounds with similar structures and monitoring methods, they are discussed together in this chapter. The structures of PCDDs, PCDFs, PCBs, and PBDEs are shown in Fig. 4.1. 

Ueno, D., Watanabe, M., Subramanian, A., Tanaka, H., Fillmann, G., Lam, P.K., Zheng, G.J., Muchtar, M., Razak, H., Prudente, M., Chung, K.FL, Tanabe, S., 2005. Global pollution monitoring of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), furans (PCDFs) and coplanar polychlorinated biphenyls (coplanar PCBs) using skipjack tuna as bioindicator. Environ. Pollut. 136, 303-313. 

The toxicity, bioaccumulative potential, and ecological impact of organohalogenated substances such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs), polychlorinated d iben zo -pa ra - diox i n s (PCDDs), or polybrominated diphenylethers (PBDEs) have been extensively reviewed.95 98 All are referred to as persistent organic pollutants (POPs), that is, chemical substances that remain in the environment, bioaccumulate through the food chain, and pose a risk to human health and the environment. The international community is calling for action to reduce and then eliminate the production or formation of these substances and to monitor their emission. In this case, the detectability obtainable by analytical methods should be very low, since the limits established for these residues are in the ng per liter range. 

Endo, T., A. Okuyama, Y. Matsubara, et al. 2005. Fluorescence-based assay with enzyme amplification on a micro-flow immunosensor chip for monitoring coplanar polychlorinated biphenyls. Anal. Chim. Acta 531 7-13. 

Griffin, P., Jones, K., and Cocker, J., Biological monitoring of polychlorinated biphenyls in plasma a comparison of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and gas chromatography detection methods, Biomarkers, 2, 193-195, 1997. 

Endo, T., Okuyama, A., Matsubara, Y., Kobayashi, M., Morita, Y., Mizukami, H., Tamiya, E., Monitoring of coplanar polychlorinated biphenyls (Co-PCB) by the multi flow antibody chip. Micro Total Analysis Systems 2003, Proceedings 7th jlTAS Symposium, Squaw Valley, CA, Oct. 5-9, 2003, 567-570. 

Regardless of one s position in this debate, it is apparent that the use of compounds that show persistence in the environment must be carefully examined and monitored. Any compound that is persistent and hydrophobic (lipophilic or fat soluble) will be subject to the process of biomagnification and may present special problems. In addition to DDT and other chlorinated pesticides, another example is provided by the polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). These compounds have two benzene rings bonded together, with varying numbers of chlorines substituted on the rings. One example is provided by the following structure ... 

One essentially unexplored area for hair analysis is its application to the investigation of environmental toxin exposure. We received a research grant during 1979 from the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health to explore the possibility of using hair analysis for monitoring exposure to polychlorinated biphenyl compounds (PCBs). Although the analytical chemical problems of this project were successfully solved, we were unable to mount successful field studies with human subjects. 

Garci a-Ruiz, C. Andres, R. Valera, J.L. Laborda, R Marina, M.L., Monitoring the stereoselectivity of hiodegradation of chiral polychlorinated biphenyls using electrokinetic chromatography J. Sep. Sci 2002, 25, 17-22. 

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are also frequently included in pollutant monitoring programmes owing to their substantial persistence and accumulation in the environment. This has raised the need to develop methods for their routine analysis. USAL as a sample preparation method is an effective choice for the fast, efficient and straightforward removal of these compounds, as shown by the method for the determination of 146 PCBs in heron eggs [119], where ultrasonic leaching resulted in improved precision, efficiency and reliability under the operational conditions proposed. USAL was used prior to the... 

One other major group of pollutants for which ultrasound-assisted leaching is an effective extraction method is that of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) [43-45]. Their persistence and accumulation in the environment has led to their inclusion in monitoring programme analyses. In most cases, ultrasonic extraction is recommended as a fast, efficient, straightforward choice for these compounds, particularly in routine analyses [44]. 

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