The Environmental Behaviour of Persistent Organic Pollutants

Abstract

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are organohalogen chemicals that, due to their potential for long-range environmental transport, toxicity, persistence and ability to bioaccumulate, are subject to bans and restrictions under a variety of jurisdictions worldwide. Those POPs forming the focus of this chapter are: polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and furans (PCDD/Fs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), and hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD). The first three are all listed as POPs under the UNEP Stockholm Convention, while HBCD will be included for such listing shortly. This chapter outlines current scientific understanding of the adverse effects of these POPs, how they are monitored in the environment, their principal sources, how their physicochemical properties influence how they behave in the environment, and how this is incorporated into mathematical models of such behaviour.