ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the brief overviews of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) nomenclature, physical and chemical properties, synthesis, commercial production and use, toxicology, metabolism, degradation and destruction, environmental occurrence, environmental fate and transport, and occupational exposure of PCBs. It discusses the significance of the changes in patterns relative to environmental fate and quantitation. In addition to the conformational chemistry and molecular orbitals, the chapter also discusses molecular properties. It reviews the subject of impurities in the commercial PCBs and presents in several original articles. The chapter examines the deposition into and movement of PCBs within the Great Lakes, as reviewed by Hileman and others. It addresses the toxicology of PCBs, both commercial mixtures and individual congeners, notably the co-planar congeners which have attracted significant attention because of their similarity to dioxins. The toxicology of PCBs has been extensively studied via in vitro and in vivo animal studies, as well as studies of humans exposed through occupation or incidents such as Yusho.
