CHAPTER ONE

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are comprised of a synthetic group of chemicals that are ubiquitous
and persistent to natural breakdown processes in the environment (Blais et al.,2003) Once released into
the environment may persist for years and have been linked with serious health and environmental
effects.(Bavel et al.,1996). No known natural sources of PCBs exist, yet they have been found in remote
areas devoid of industrial activities. Their major sources are anthropogenic in nature. Although they are
no longer manufactured or imported into many countries, they remain sizeable quantities in old
transformers and other electrical devices in developing countries. In developing countries, PCBs are
being released into the environment from poorly maintained toxic wastes sites, improper and illegal
dumping of PCB into waters from transformer fluids or through fugitive emissions from incineration of
PCB containing wastes (Connell et al.,1996) .Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are chlorinated aromatic
hydrocarbons each containing between one and 10 chlorine atoms attached to a biphenyl moiety. There
are 209 theoretically possible PCB congeners (Smith and Gangolli, 2002). PCBs were once used in
numerous industrial materials such as hydraulic fluids, insulating oil in condensers and transformers, and
paints (Robertson and Hansen, 2001; Takasuga et al., 2006). PCBs were produced as technical mixtures
with various tradenames (e.g., Aroclor, Kanechlor (KC), and Clophen) that were used in different
countries. PCBs are toxic, very persistent, and lipophilic, so many countries banned PCB use and
production in the 1970s and 1980s. PCBs were classed as persistent organic pollutants under the
Stockholm Convention in 2001 (UNEP, 2001). 1Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are a group of toxic and
highlypersistent organic compounds that consist of 209 congeners differing in the number and position
of chlorine atoms on the two coupled biphenyl rings. Long-term chronic exposure to PCBs has
beenlinked to severe injury to the nervous, endocrine, reproductive andimmune systems in birds, fish
and mammals (Skaare et al., 2000;Toft, Edwards, Baatrup, & Guillette, 2003). PCBs were produced for
many years and used as additives in pesticides, paints, sealantsor plastics as well as heat exchange
fluids, in electric transformersand capacitors (Llobet, Martí-Cid, Castell, & Domingo, 2008)The marine
ecosystem was largely affected by PCBs impact andit still plays a fundamental role in the fate of these
compounds.Unlike other contaminants, such as organotin compounds which are still used in various
countries in spite of the 2008 ban by theInternational Marine Organisation (Magi et al., 2008), the
production and use of PCBs has come to a complete stop, after they werebanned during the seventies;
nevertheless, PCBs concentration in
 marine matrices is still relevant, due to their persistency (Olsovska,Kresinova, Flieger, & Cajthaml,
2010). PCBs are lipophilic, therefore fishes can absorb, retain and concentrate them, particularly in fatty
tissues (Storelli, Giacominelli-Stuffler, Storelli, & Marcotrigiano, 2003); bioaccumulation and
biomagnification of these contaminants in fish and marine mammals were reported by severa lauthors
(Andersson et al., 2001; Smith & Gangolli, 2002): a recentstudy on the occurrence of dioxins, furans and
PCBs in various edible fishes from the Adriatic Sea showed that PCBs were the dominant chemicals with
concentration levels up to 1980 ng per gram of lipid weight (Storelli, Barone, Perrone, & Giacominelli-
Stuffler, 2011). Other papers, during the last decade, highlighted that considerable quantities of PCBs
are still present in the Italian marine environment (Stefanelli et al., 2004; Trocino et al., 2012) 2In human
exposure, dietary intake is the main route: fish, shell-fish and animal fats contribute mainly to the PCB
intake in human beings (Bocio, Domingo, Falcó, & Llobet, 2007). Several studies demonstrated a clear
correlation between the frequency of fish consumption and the level of organochlorine compounds in
human2tissues, serum and milk (Fitzgerald et al., 2004; Fromberg, Granby, Hojgard, Fagt, & Larsen,
2011).The determination of PCBs in real matrices is generally considered a challenging task: (van
Leeuwen & de Boer, 2008) co-extracted substances can interfere with the analysis, leading tounreliable
results also when the powerful instrumental technique of gas chromatography coupled to mass
spectrometry is employed.Sample preparation is then a crucial step prior to the analyticaldetermination
of these pollutants.

1.1 OBJECTIVES

1. To determine the concentration of PCB in a river fish

2. To determine the physiochemical parameters in a river fish

3. To correllate the concentration of PCB with physiochemical parameters

4. To compare the values obtained in this study with other studies

 CHAPTER TWO

2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 POLYCHLORINATED BIPHENYLS

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), the chlorinated derivatives of biphenyl, are highly toxic environmental
pollutants that have become ubiquitous throughout the environment and the food web because of their
low degradability(Vasilyeva and Strijakova 2007). Therefore, the removal of PCBs from soil and sediment
is a high priority in several industrial countries ( PCB molecules consist of abiphenyl nucleus carrying 1–
10 chlorines, which can create >200 possible congeners that differ in chlorine number and position. The
less-chlorinated congeners are usually less toxic than the more-chlorinated congeners.(Jia and Zheng
2008)The remediation of PCB contamination in the environment has become extremely
important3.Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), the chlorinated derivatives of biphenyl, are one of the
most prevalent, highly toxic and persistent groups of contaminants in the environment. 3Polychlorinated
biphenyls (PCBs) are a group of chemicals that contain 209 individual compounds (known as congeners)
with varying harmful effects. Information on specific congener toxicity is very limited.  Most toxicity
testing has been done on specific commercial mixtures; however, PCB mixtures found in the
environment will differ in composition from the commercial mixtures because of partitioning,
biotransformation, and bioaccumulation.3Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are a class of synthetic
organic compounds containing carbon, hydrogen and chlorine atoms. They have been used in various
industrial and commercial applications owing to their high boiling points, non-flammability, chemical
stability and insulating properties. Also, PCBs are exceptionally stable and prevail in the environment for
a very long time. Consequently, they may not just affect the individual organisms, but ultimately the
entire ecosystems. The present review describes the sources, fate and transport of PCBs in the
environment followed by their accumulation in humans, animals, plants and biota. We provide the
description of current knowledge on sampling, pretreatment and cleanup procedures for the best
extraction of PCBs from various contaminated sites. Further, the futuristic analytical strategies
established for the determination of PCBs and adequate remedial methods are discussed in detail. Also,
the analytical challenges and recommendations for future research regarding the PCBs assessment in
the environment are summarized. Overall, this review presents comprehensive knowledge on cutting
edge technologies available in the field of PCBs analysis.Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are the
synthetic organic compounds produced from biphenyls by the replacement of hydrogens with chlorine
atoms. Each PCB homologue contains exact number of isomers viz., monochloro (3), dichloro (12),
trichloro (24), tetrachloro (42), pentachloro (46), hexachloro (42), heptachloro (24), octachloro (12),
nonachloro (3) and decachlorobiphenyl (Zang et Al., 2015)The number and position of chlorine atoms on
phenyl rings differentiate the PCB congeners, and there are total 209 PCB congeners. Among all, 12 PCB
congeners consisting four or above four chlorine atoms with one or no substitution at the ortho position
are thought to exhibit dioxin-like (DL) toxicity and they are termed as ‘‘DL PCBs’’( Seegal et Al.,2011)
Owing to their chemical stability, insulating properties and non-flammability, PCBs have been utilized in
various commercial and chemical industries for the wide range of applications such as in heat transfer,
rubber and plastic products, hydraulic machines, dyes, pigments and carbonless copy paper (Zhu and
Zang 2011)The estimated overall global production of PCBs is 1.5 million metric tons, and approximately
10 %of which are remaining in the environment as of today (Wolska et al.,2012) The authorities have
raised the detrimental effects of PCBs on the environment including their toxicity, persistency and
bioaccumulation. As a result, their production was aborted all over the world from late 1970s to early
1980s. 4PCBs have been categorized into a group of persistent organic pollutants (POPs). In view of
their acute toxicity and environmental persistency, several analytical strategies have been developed
for sampling, pretreatment and analysis of PCBs in air, water, soil, sediments and other biological
contaminated sources at trace concentrations. Even though several review articles have briefly
discussed the toxicology, pharmacokinetics and analytical procedures for the characterization of PCBs
from different sources in the environment, but no review has described systematically about the
sampling, extraction and methods of analysis (Qizhou et al.,2016). Therefore, the present review
focuses on the fate and transport of PCBs in the environment, latest sampling techniques used or
developed for air, water, soil, sediments, plants and biological tissues. Further, this review emphasizes
sample extraction methods and their analysis by the state-of-the-art analytical techniques considering
the latest research articles as case studies. Finally, the possible remediation approaches followed by the
future recommendations are discussed. Overall, this review could be a complete guide for the analysis
of PCBs collected from any kind of contaminated source(s).

2.2 VARIOUS PCB CONGENERS IN FISH

2.2.1 PCB 153

In general, PCB 153 is one of the main contributors to the total PCB content in freshwater fish species
worldwide due to its long half-life (Nicola et al., 2014). PCBs 153 detected at high levels in this study,
have been shown to initiate histological and neurological damage in the liver (Duffy and Zelikoff, 2006).
Vezina et al. (2004) showed that after exposure to PCB 153, rats, mice and monkeys exhibited liver
damage. The estimation of hepatic sequestration showed that liver/muscle ratios for the sum of the six
congeners were higher in O. mossambicus(4.92) compared to C. carpio (3.04). The bioaccumulation of
PCBs in tissues is related to their logarithm octanol-water partition coefficient (log Kow). The lipophilicity
and log Kow increase as the chlorine content increases thereby decreasing the biodegradability of PCB
compounds (Semple et al., 2003; Zhou et al., 2005). The higher chlorinated congeners are less soluble in
water and are therefore detected at higher levels in aquatic organisms. The bioaccumulation of PCBs in
aquatic organisms is directly linked to their degree of chlorination and lipophilicity (Karjalainen et al.,
2006)5
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