Some Chemical Aspects of Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs)

In the past few years considerable scientific information has appeared on the chemistry and biological effects of the PCBs and related materials. The amount of chemical investigation, and especially the biological effects investigation that can be done on these products, is almost limitless. Even though the PCBs show a great deal of inertness, a property very useful in their industrial applications, they certainly do change in most instances before they are inadvertently consumed by man. It is important that we learn more about the nature of these products and the changes they undergo. I believe that the choice of scientific investigation that will provide effective answers is going to be made by close cooperation between the scientists in the field of chemistry and those in the various biological disciplines. I hope that conferences like this one will help give us guidance as to the most fruitful avenues to follow in research and will assist in the interpretation of the data obtained. It is simpler to acquire data than to interpret them. No attempt has been made to make or present a complete survey of literature on chemistry of PCBs. Instead, I have chosen to discuss in a general way some facets of the chemistry which I think are interesting and relevant to the subject of this conference. For the most part I have drawn upon illustrations from our FDA laboratories because of the easily available material. There are a number of statements in the literature and the public press which liken PCBs to