Persistent pollutants, persistent threats

Persistent Organic Pollutants ("POPs")

Strictly speaking, all toxins entering the environment can be regarded as environmental poisons. Certain pollutants can, acting over long periods, harm living organisms even in low concentrations. This means that pollutants that are stable and thus persistent have a great ability to act as environmental poisons. Their stability means not only that their effects are long-lasting, but also that t...

Serum Persistent Organic Pollutants

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are manmade organic chemicals that remain in the environment for years or decades. POPs are of special concern because they often remain toxic for decades or longer after release to the environment. The more persistent a toxic chemical is, the greater the probability for human exposure over time. Because they circulate globally long after being released into...

Defending Against Advanced Persistent Threats

Persistent Threats by Persistent Pollutants: Chemical Nature, Concerns and Future Policy Regarding PCBs—What Are We Heading For?

Polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB)-contaminated sites around the world affect human health for many years, showing long latency periods of health effects. The impact of the different PCB congeners on human health should not be underestimated, as they are ubiquitous, stable molecules and reactive in biological tissues, leading to neurological, endocrine, genetic, and systemic adverse effects in the ...

Chapter 8 Persistent Organic Pollutants

The rapid growth in chemical and agrochemical industries during the last century have resulted in the environmental releases of a large number of new chemical compounds into the environment. According to the OECD, the daily use of chemicals includes about 70,000 mainly organic synthetic chemicals, and the number increases continuously (Schwarzenbach et al. 1993). Over the last decades, there ha...