Global Contamination Trends of Persistent Organic Chemicals

Environmental pollution by man-made persistent organic chemicals (POCs) has been a serious global issue for over half a century. POCs are prevalent in air, water, soil, and organisms including wildlife and humans throughout the world. They do not degrade and cause long-term effect in organisms. Exposure to certain POCs may result in serious environmental and health effects including birth defects, diminished intelligence and certain types of cancers. Therefore, POCs have been the subject of an intensive regional, national and international effort to limit their production, use, and disposal of these chemical stocks. Trend monitoring studies are essential to make clear the behavior and fate of these compounds and to protect our environment and living resources.

Global Contamination Trends of Persistent Organic Chemicals provides comprehensive coverage of spatial and temporal trends of classical and emerging contaminants in aquatic, terrestrial, and marine ecosystems, including the Arctic and Antarctic ecosystems. Compiled by an international group of experts, this volume covers:

• Spatial and temporal trends of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), chlorinated pesticides, polychlorinated naphthalenes (PCNs), polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins/furans (PCDD/DFs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), hexabromocyclododecanes (HBCDs), perfluorinated compounds (PFCs), synthetic musks, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and octyl- and nonylphenols
• Environmental and biological matrices used for the trend studies were atmosphere, water, soil, sediment, bivalve mollusks, fish, marine mammals, terrestrial mammals, and human breast milk
• Spatial and temporal trend studies presented from Australia, Brazil, China, Estonia, Ghana, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Norway, Poland, Sweden, the United States, coastal and open ocean environments, and the Arctic and Antarctic regions

POCs have been the subject of an intensive regional, national, and international effort to limit their production and use, and to mitigate the disposal of these chemicals. Since POCs are prevalent in air, water, soil, and tissues of organisms (including wildlife and humans) throughout the world and do not degrade, they cause long-term effects in organisms. Trend monitoring studies are essential to make clear the behavior and fate of these compounds and to protect our environment and living resources. Relevant to professionals and students alike, Global Contamination Trends of Persistent Organic Chemicals facilitates the understanding of environmental and biological behavior of these chemicals and the development of strategies for protecting the global environment for future generations.

Bommanna G. Loganathan, Ph.D., is a professor of environmental/analytical chemistry at the Murray State University (MSU), Kentucky, USA. His current research involves investigations on the distribution, environmental transformation, and fate of persistent organic/organometallic pollutants in the environment and their effects on wildlife and human health. A major focus of his research is to evaluate status and trends of classical as well as emerging pollutants in man-made freshwater lakes such as Kentucky Lake in comparison with natural lakes and marine ecosystems, and to assess the effects of these compounds on human natural killer cells’ ability to kill cancer cells using in vitro assays. He is the author/co-author of over one hundred publications in peer reviewed journals and book chapters.

Paul K.S. Lam is Chair Professor of biology at the City University of Hong Kong. He is currently Vice-President (Student Affairs) and Director of State Key Laboratory in Marine Pollution. Prof. Lam has extensive research experience in marine environmental research. He is particularly interested in the responses of organisms to toxic chemicals and algal toxins, as well as the risk assessment of these compounds. He is the author/co-author of over 240 publications in international refereed journals. Prof. Lam has been responsible for over 30 major government consultancy projects in the environmental field, including assessments of risks to Hong Kong cetaceans and waterbirds due to toxic contaminants.