Organochlorine contamination (PCBs and DDTs) in deep-sea fish from the Mediterranean sea

摘要

Organic contaminants, such as polychlorinated biphe-nyls (PCBs) and organochlorine pesticides (e.g., DDTs), are a group of persistent compounds whose presence in the environment is a clear indication of anthropogenic pollution. Several studies have shown that these compounds exhibit a great variety of sex-, strain-, and species-specific toxic effects, including immuno, hepato and neurotoxicity, as well as reproductive alterations (Ahlborg et al., 1994). Several of these adverse effects are caused by the most toxic members of the PCB family, the so-called "dioxin-like", 3,3',4,4'-T_4CB, (IUPAC 77), 3,3',4,4',5-P_5CB (IUPAC 126), and 3,3',4,4',5,5'-H_6CB (IUPAC 169), whose properties are similar to 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD).