Persistent organic pollutants in Vietnam: environmental contamination and human exposure.

Global contamination and toxic effects of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) have been an emerging environmental issue and have received considerable attention during the past four decades. Although the extent of contamination by POPs has been dominant in industrialized nations, an increasing number of recent investigations have highlighted the role of the Asia-Pacific region as a potential source of emission for these chemicals, particularly to pristine areas such as the Arctic and the Antarctic (Tanabe et al. 1994; Tanabe 2000, 2002; Tanabe and Subramanian 2006).