PCB pollution may be worse now than before they were banned

Levels of toxic polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) released into the environment could be higher now than they were during peak production in the 1970s. Despite being banned for over 40 years, new estimates suggest that significant amounts of these carcinogenic chemicals are inadvertently being formed as byproducts of other chemical processes.

The researchers from the UK and Canada say that their ‘back of the envelope’ calculations – which they admit could overestimate the scale of the problem – warrant further investigation and that byproduct PCBs should be reconsidered as emerging pollutants of concern.