Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) are toxic, resistant to degradation, bioaccumulative, and display wide spatial distribution. They accumulate in humans and wildlife, and have been linked to cancer, as well as reproductive and immunological disorders. In 2001 a global treaty on POPs was agreed, to minimise and ultimately eliminate the release of POPs into the environment. The Stockholm Convention lists 12 groups of chemicals, and as of late 2008, a further 12 chemicals are under consideration for inclusion.
This book addresses all of these chemicals, but focuses particularly on currently listed POPs that are still of major concern (e.g. polychlorinated biphenyls - PCBs), as well as new and emerging POPs that have been the subject of an explosion of scientific interest in the last decade, i.e. brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and perfluorinatedΒ chemicals (PFCs). Other chapters address the challenges posed by the presence of POPs in the developing world; how the properties of chiral POPs can provide unique insights into their environmental sources, fate and behaviour; and issues arising from the presence of POPs in urban and indoor environments. Persistent Organic Pollutants provides a much-anticipated reference source for a wide audience including academics, industrial scientists and regulators.
Booknews
Nine contributions written by chemists, environmental scientists, environmental resource management specialists, and others from the US, UK, The Netherlands, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic focus on the sources, environmental cycling, food chain transfer, and human exposure and fate aspects of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), a class of chemicals with a number of proven adverse affects in humans and wildlife, as well as food chain transfer and long-range atmospheric transport problems. Other issues addressed include temporal trends in contamination; the implications of their transport to polar regions; and the significance of the former Warsaw Pact nations of central and eastern Europe as both a global reservoir and source of POPs. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)