A major contribution of this paper is to differentiate reported commercial applications of PCBs that can be documented from those which cannot. Undocumented uses may include actual minor uses as well as reported applications that are unlikely ever to have been commercialized.
The results of this study can be summarized as follows: (1) Monochlorobiphenyl and the 30%-chlorinated biphenyl MCS 1043 did not accumulate in the lipid reservoir of the rats when fed at 25 ppm and 100 ppm in the diet. This result indicates that mono-, di-, and trichlorobiphenyls are readily metabolized and/or excreted under the conditions of this study. (2) Although a fraction of the ingested Aroclor 1242 and Aroclor 1016 was stored in the rats' lipid reservoir, most of this residue was depleted after the rats had been on the basal laboratory diet for several weeks. (3) Residues of Aroclor 1016 accumulated more slowly and to a significantly lesser extent than those of Aroclor 1242. During the recovery period these PCB residues decreased to lower values for Aroclor 1016. This result indicates that a product containing reduced amounts of the more highly chlorinated PCBs should have improved environmental compatibility.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.