Hydroxylated polychlorinated biphenyls in the environment: sources, fate, and toxicities

Abstract

Hydroxylated polychlorinated biphenyls (OH-PCBs) are produced in the environment by the oxidation of PCBs through a variety of mechanisms, including metabolic transformation in living organisms and abiotic reactions with hydroxyl radicals. As a consequence, OH-PCBs have been detected in a wide range of environmental samples, including animal tissues, water, and sediments. OH-PCBs have recently raised serious environmental concerns because they exert a variety of toxic effects at lower doses than the parent PCBs and they are disruptors of the endocrine system. Although evidence has accumulated about the widespread dispersion of OH-PCBs in various compartments of the ecosystem, little is currently known about their biodegradation and behavior in the environment. OH-PCBs are today increasingly considered as a new class of environmental contaminants that possess specific chemical, physical, and biological properties not shared with the parent PCBs. This article reviews recent findings regarding the sources, fate, and toxicities of OH-PCBs in the environment.

Memory Effect of Aquatic Biofilms in the Partitioning of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) and Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) in Water Streams

“…The solubility of pyrene and phenanthrene in water is 0.18 mg/L and 1.5 mg/L respectively [38], [8]. The reference PCBs display a water solubility of 0.2-0.9 mg/L [39].The modeling refers to the molecules of the pollutant which are dissolved into the water phase, since these are the molecules involved in the partitioning process. The choice of a suitable partition coefficient will be presented in the next section.…”

Determination of Nine Hydroxylated Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers and Forty Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers in Atmospheric Fine Particles by Precolumn Derivatization-GC-MS/GC

“…Hydroxy polybrominated diphenyl ethers (OH-PBDEs) as metabolites of PBDEs in the environment, are potentially more toxic than their parent PBDEs [1]. At present, PBDEs and OH-PBDEs are ubiquitous in all environmental media (air, soil, sediment, indoor air), organisms (fish, birds, mammals) and in human body (breast milk, blood, tissue and bile) [2,3], etc. The PBDEs in the environment can be transported and transformed over long distances through the atmosphere, causing harm to the ecological environment and human health [4].…”

Characteristics of selected bioaccumulative substances and their impact on fish health

“…After entering the organism, they may undergo hydroxylation through oxidation by cytochrome P-450 and become hydroxylated polychlorinated biphenyls (OH-PCB). These compounds exert toxic effects such as: inhibition of mitochondrial respiration, generation of ROS, oxidative damage to DNA, and endocrine disrupting effects (42). The substance itself primarily influences pesticides reaction in the organism.…”