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There are also
issues related to the fate, the transport, and the characteristics of POCs
present in an aquatic environment. POCs are very bioaccumulative. Therefore,
past and current trends may not be indicative of the residue levels in fish
occurring in the near future. Some POCs like DDT and PCBs are reported to
have been transported to remote sites where the chemicals have never been
used (Matthies and Scheringer, 2001). In fact, PCBs have been banned or
severely restricted in many countries since the late 1970s. At that time,
their total amount produced worldwide was estimated as about 2 x 109
kg (~2 million tonnes). Yet of this total, about 90% was estimated recently
to still remain in mobile environmental reservoirs (IPCS, 2003). |