ABSTRACT
Pollution of the environment has been one of the largest concerns for science and the general public in the last 50 years. The rapid industrialization of agriculture, expansions in the chemical industry, and the need to generate cheap forms of energy have all caused the continuous release of anthropogenic organic chemicals into the biosphere. Consequently, the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, and many soil environments have become polluted to a lesser or greater extent by a large variety of xenobiotic compounds (1). Some toxic compounds are resistant to physical, chemical, or biological degradation and thus constitute an environmental burden of considerable magnitude (2). At high concentration, or after prolonged exposure, some xenobiotics have the potential to produce adverse effects in humans and other organisms; these include acute toxicity, carcinogenesis, mutagenesis, and teratogenesis. Moreover, substances usually found at very low concentrations, and not considered as pollutants, may become contaminants because of their bioaccumulation in food chains to high concentrations (3).
