Building Materials: An Important Source for Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) in Urban Soils

Jartun, Morten

doi:10.1002/9780470670071.ch9

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 17 publications

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“…Despite the European ban on PCBs in the mid-1980s, large amounts still require disposal. , Legacy PCBs continue to enter the marine environment via several mechanisms such as terrestrial runoff, dredging, atmospheric transport, and deposition. , In Swedish waters, many wildlife populations such as otters ( Lutra lutra ), gray seals ( Halichoerus grypus ), and the white-tailed eagle ( Haliaeetus albicilla ), have experienced population recoveries that coincide with a decrease of PCB concentrations in their tissues . However, trends in the concentrations of PCBs in cetaceans in the United Kingdom (U.K.) have not been analyzed since 2012, whereby it was reported that concentrations in harbor porpoises ( Phocoena phocoena ) had stabilized in the year 1998, at levels still deemed to be a toxicological threat …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Levels of Polychlorinated Biphenyls Are Still Associated with Toxic Effects in Harbor Porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) Despite Having Fallen below Proposed Toxicity Thresholds

Williams

Curnick

Brownlow³

et al. 2020

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are toxic, persistent, and lipophilic chemical compounds that accumulate to high levels in harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) and other cetaceans. It is important to monitor PCBs in wildlife, particularly in highly exposed populations to understand if concentrations are declining and how levels relate to toxicological thresholds and indices of health like infectious disease mortality. Here we show, using generalized additive models and tissue samples of 814 U.K.-stranded harbor porpoises collected between 1990 and 2017, that mean blubber PCB concentrations have fallen below the proposed thresholds for toxic effects. However, we found they are still associated with increased rates of infectious disease mortality such that an increase in PCB blubber concentrations of 1 mg kg–1 lipid corresponds with a 5% increase in risk of infectious disease mortality. Moreover, rates of decline and levels varied geographically, and the overall rate of decline is slow in comparison to other pollutants. We believe this is evidence of long-term preservation in the population and continued environmental contamination from diffuse sources. Our findings have serious implications for the management of PCB contamination in the U.K. and reinforce the need to prevent PCBs entering the marine environment to ensure that levels continue to decline.

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