Polychlorinated biphenyls in the environment

Abstract

This review surveys the problems arising from the release of PCBs into the environment from the point of view of the analytical chemist. These problems are very complex and interdependent and so it is essential to recognize their mutual links rather than to separate one problem from another (sources of contamination, fate in the environment, toxic properties and particular capabilities, limitations and purposes of analytical methods). Prominent attention should be paid in the future to congener-specific analyses of "toxic" congeners using high-resolution gas chromatography and to toxicity-assessing biological methods.