Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides discussions on the partitioning, the persistence, and the toxicity of organic compounds within the wider context of environmental hazard assessment. It indicates some of the concepts that may profitably be translated — albeit with appropriate modification — from human toxicology and epidemiology to ecotoxicology. The book presents an overview of the issues that are basic to producing an environmental hazard assessment of organic compounds discharged into the aquatic environment. It discusses the wider environmental significance of metabolites produced by microbial action from the original compounds. The book explains the association between monomelic compounds and naturally occurring polymeric material in environmental matrices. It also discusses its significance for the analysis of xenobiotics, its importance in transport processes, and its critical role in determining the accessibility of xenobiotics to biota including microorganisms.