Contents

Disposal of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)

Journal:
Manual of European Environmental Policy
ISSN:
1467-0445
E-ISSN:
1740-3529
Publisher:
Routledge,
DOI:
10.3763/meep.2010.0098
Author:
Institute for European Environmental Policy
Information last updated:
December 2011
Publication date:
December 2011

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are organohalogen compounds that have been used most recently as dielectric fluids. Prior to 1973 they were more widely used as hydraulic fluids, heat transfer fluids, lubricants and plasticisers in such products as paints and carbonless copying paper. PCBs are not believed to occur naturally, but being very resistant to degradation they have been widely detected in the environment, particularly in predatory birds feeding on aquatic organisms. PCBs may have accounted for the spectacular catastrophe among wild birds in the Irish Sea in 1969. It is known that some aquatic organisms such as shrimps may be killed at very low concentrations of PCBs in water. PCBs can be destroyed in high-temperature incinerators.

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