• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Life Science Conference
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.94.2-94.2
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• 2008

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.220-227
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• 2016

In this paper, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were measured in surface sediments collected three times (June, October, December, 2013), inside Jeju Harbor as major harbors of Jeju Island. The concentration of PCBs inside Jeju Harbor was in the range of 1.62~4.45 (mean) ng/g on a dry weight basis and the levels were very low. In the analysis of PCBS homologue patterns, high-chlorinated PCB congeners were dominant in surface sediments inside Jeju Harbor, indicating that their sources were originated from shipping activity. In the relationships between PCBs concentrations and particle size (mud, sand and gravel) in surface sediments, PCBs concentrations were higher in the sediments with higher mud content, indicating that higher PCBs were distributed with increasing sediments of fine gradules. The PCBs concentrations in surface sediments in this study were very low, compared with ER-L (effect range-low) and TEL (threshold effects level) among sediment quality guideleines (SQGs) applied in foreign countries, such as USA, Canada, and Australia, etc), indicating that their biological effects on the bottom organisms in marine environment were expected to be very low.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.53-62
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• 2008

In the present study, the concentration levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (or PCBs) in the environments in Korea are estimated based on some measured data in Korea, in comparison with the data from the other countries. Even though PCBs were banned as electrical fluids in 1970s in Korea, PCBs are still detected in the environment. PCBs levels in Korea are greatly lower than those in other countries, which are gradually decreased as well. However, the measured data are not sufficient in both numbers and quality, to estimate the average PCBs levels in Korea. The regulation limit on polychlorinated biphenyls (or PCBs) is 2mg/kg (ppm), which is too low compared to 50 ppm of many other countries including U.S. With this strict regulation, there are many problems expected, for example, in the analysis of PCBs in the transformers using in the field as well as the safe treatment of PCBs. The risk assessment on the PCBs in the environment is surely necessary prior to the change in the limit. Also the PCBs concentration monitoring in the environmental media (i.e. air, water, soil and sediment) and exposure assessment will be essential for the accurate risk assessment. If the PCB-waste guideline maintain as 2 ppm after 10 years, the excess cancer risk of PCBs exposure by ambient air, drinking water and soil was $10^{-8}$. But if the guideline mitigate as 50 ppm after 10 years, the cancer risk was increased by $10^{-7}$. The ecological risk quotient by regulation change was not exceed '1'.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.364-369
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• 2013

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have been studied during the past few decades because of their potential impacts on the environment and human health. PCBs are toxic environmental pollutants and persistent organic pollutants (POPs). This study was carried out to assess the dietary exposure and risk to PCBs for the general Korean population through food intake. Various samples (n=389) covering 28 kinds of food were collected from 5 cities in Korea. The PCB content was not detected-$182.4{\mu}g/kg$ (mean of $5.4{\mu}g/kg$) in the food. The mean dietary exposure of PCBs for the general population was 9.54 ng/kg bw/day with an intake of 0.19% of tolerable daily intake (TDI) ($5{\mu}g/kg$ bw/day). Therefore, the level of overall dietary exposure to PCBs for the Korean population through food intake is below the recommended TDI levels.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.265-274
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• 2002

The concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in air and plant were measured every other week at Hankyong University located in Ansung, Kyoung-ki province from July to November of 1999. The predicted PCB concentrations in air derived from measured Morus allba were compared with ambient measurement data. This was necessary to test the possibility of using the two equations incorporating Riederer's and Bacci's bioconcentration factors (BCFs) based on the octanol-air partition coefficient (Ksub/oa/) to predict the air-plant equilibrium of PCBs. Ratios of calculated to measured PCB concentrations in air were 2.4 (1.24~4.36), 2.7 (0.17~7.96) using Riederer's and Bacci's equations, respectively Regression analysis between PCBs calculated by Riederer's equation and PCBs directly measured in air, showed correlation ($R^2$= 0.90). However, slope of regression between calculated and directly measured PCB concentrations was above 1. The results thus suggest that calculated PCBs were overestimated comparing with direct measurements. Bio-monitoring using Morus allba may have possibilities in predicting PCBs concentration in air with a further extension of air-plant equilibrium research.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.18 no.9
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• pp.953-959
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• 2009

A practical and efficient disposal method for chemical dechlorination of PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) in transformer oil was evaluated. The transformer oil containing PCBs was treated by the PEG 600 (polyethylene glycol 600) and potassium hydroxide (KOH) along with different reaction temperatures(25, 50, 100 and $150^{\circ}C$) and times(30, 60, 240 and 480 min). The best disposal efficiency of PCBs in transformer oil was attained under the experimental conditions of PEG 600 (2.5 w/w%)/KOH (2.5 w/w%)/$150^{\circ}C$/4 hrs, showing completely removal of all PCBs containing 3-9 chlorines on two rings of biphenyl. In studying the reaction of PEG/KOH with PCBs, it confirmed that the process led to less chlorinated PCBs through a stepwise process with the successive elimination of chlorines.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.159-166
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• 2004

The effects of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) on the reproduction of the oily bitterling, Acheilognathus koreensis were investigated using histological methods. The experimental fishes were exposed to 0. 3.4, 9.3 and 25.8 ${\mu}g\; L^{-1}$ PCBs fey 8 weeks. Dead fishes and abnormal behavior were not observed in control and PCBs exposure group. In compared with control group, PCBs exposure fishes showed differences of gonadal development, gonadosomatic index (GSI), hepatosomatic index (BSI), nuptial color index (NCI) and ovipositor length index (OLI). These results showed that PCBs could disrupt reproductive process in the fish.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.285-293
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• 2005

This study was aimed at estimation of gas-particle partitioning of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in ambient air. The samples were collected at urban site in Japan from March 2002 to January 2003. The concentration of total PCBs (from 4 CB to 10 CB) and TEQ (Toxic equivalent) ranged from 62 to $247\;pg/m^3$ and from 2 to $14\;fgTEQ/m^3 $, respectively. The average contribution $(\%)$ of gas phase to total PCBs concentration was above $80\%$, which suggests that in the atmosphere PCBs predominantly existed in the gas phase. The weak correlations between total PCBs concentration and temperature was found. However this result was due to a typhoon during summer and raining during sampling period. The gas-particle partition coefficient (Kp) was obtained as a function of temperature. The partition ratio of gaseous and particulate phase PCBs can be estimated for an arbitrary temperature. The plot of gas/particle partition coefficient (log Kp) vs. sub-cooled liquid vapor pressure $(log\;P_L)$ had reasonable correlations for individual samples but the slope varied among the samples (coefficients of determination for log Kp versus log $P_L$ plot were> 0.76 $(p<0.0001)$, except for 3 samples). As a result, the variations in the slope among the sampling period may be due to change of temperature, raining during sampling period and wind in this study.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.734-743
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• 2007

Polyurethane foam-disk passive air samplers (PAS) were deployed in a southern area of Korea for three months. The target compounds were 12 coplanar polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). The congener profiles measured in this study were the same as those in ambient air and emission gas from the incinerator. A gradient of the total PCBs in different regions (industrial>residential>rural) was observed, suggesting the industrial complex may be an important source of coplanar PCBs. In general, only gas-phase compounds are mainly sequestrated by PAS. In order to estimate the concentration of particle-phase PCBs, a gas/particle partition model was used. A combined result (gas+particle-phase PCBs) was compared with previous results, indicating that the level of coplanar PCBs in our study area is comparable to those in other urban sites in the world. The validation of this method for estimating the total concentration is required through additional backup studies.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.51-56
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• 1987

The effects of ethanol extracts from Asparagus cochinchinensis, Polggonatum officinale, Poria cocos, Panax ginseng and Acanthopanax sessiliflorum on the toxicity of polychlorinated biphenyls(PCBs) were examined and following results were obtained. By the administration of these extracts, PCBs intoxicated rats showed the normalizing tendency in body weights and various hematological parameters-counts of red blood cell and white blood cell, hemoglobin content and hematocrit value. These extracts ameliorated the elevated levels of serum cholesterol, total lipids, $_{8}-GOT-,\;_{8}-GPT$ and s-alkaline phosphatase activities of PCBs intoxicated rats.