Persistent Organic Pollutants

by Harrad, Stuart

• ISBN13: 9781405169301
• ISBN10: 1405169303
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-05-10
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are organic compounds that remain intact in the environment for long periods, become widely distributed geographically, accumulate in the fatty tissue of living organisms and are toxic to humans and wildlife. The Stockholm Convention on POPs is a global treaty to protect human health and the environment from POPs which came into force in 2004. Currently, twelve substances or substance groups are included under the Stockholm Convention, but there is a case for including new and emerging POPs such as brominated flame retardants and perfluorinated substances. This book considers these two new pollutants, together with the emerging area of chirality and its applications as an environmental forensics tool, and the topic of POPs contamination of indoor environments.

Author Biography

Dr Stuart Harrad is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Birmingham. He heads the NERC Network on POPs and has been selected to chair Dioxin 2008, a major conference on Halogenated POPs (1000 delegates).
He edited Persistent Organic Pollutants: Environmental Behaviour and Pathways of Human Exposure published by Kluwer in 2001.

Table of Contents

Beyond the Stockholm Convention: An Introduction to Current Issues and Future Challenges in POPs Research

References

Brominated Flame Retardants

Introduction

Sources

Overview of measurement techniques

Physico-chemical properties and their influence on environmental fate and behaviour

Overview of toxicology

Environmental levels - present, past and future temporal trends

Human exposure - magnitude and relative significance of pathways

Summary/Conclusions

Acknowledgements

References

Perfluoroalkyl Compounds

Introduction and Nomenclature

Manufacturing and Production

Overview of Toxicology

Physical Chemical Properties and Environmental Fate

Overview of Measurement Techniques

Human Exposure

Sources of PFCs to the Environment

Environmental Measurements

References

Chirality as an Environmental Forensics Tool

Introduction

Classes of Chiral Legacy and Persistent Organic Pollutants

Measuring and Quantifying Enantiomer Composition of POPs

Chirality to Characterize Environmental Biochemical Processes

Chirality to Quantify Rates of Biotransformation

Chirality as a tool for Pollutant Source Apportionment

Caveats in using Chirality to probe Biologically-Mediated Environmental Processes

Conclusions

Acknowledgements

References

Persistent Organic Pollutants in the Developing World

Introduction

Sources of POPs in developing countries

Levels of POPs in developing countries

Problems related to POPs in Developing Countries

Conclusions

References

Sources, Fate and Effects of Contaminant Emissions in Urban Areas

Introduction

Chemical Emissions in Urban Areas

Chemical Mixtures in Urban Media

Urban Chemical Signatures

Emissions and Environmental Degradation

Urban Form and Chemical Emissions

A Quantitative Model of Contaminant Fate in Urban Areas

Future Directions

Acknowledgements

References

The Contamination of Indoor Environments with Persistent Organic Pollutants

Introduction

Methods of Sampling

Sources and Levels of Indoor Contamination

Relative Significance of Indoor Exposure

Uncertainties in Estimates of Exposure via Dust Ingestion and Indoor Air Inhalation

International Differences in Indoor Contamination

Concentrations in Different Microenvironment Categories

Influence of Indoor Contamination on Outdoor Contamination

Future Research Priorities

References

The Chemicals that will not go away: Implications for Human Exposure of Reservoirs of Pops

References

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