A review of the accumulation and distribution of persistent organic pollutants in the environment

Abstract

Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) have a long life in soils, sediments, air or biota. There has been a recent upsurge of interest in the development of low cost reliable measures which are required in order to detect and trace current concentration levels of POPs due to increasing levels of accumulation within the living organism. It is accompanied by transformation as well as toxicity makes it ideal to examine the impact on the environment which has been the focus of this review. There are still debates that rage around the issue including relevance of some physiopathologic effects of POPs on the human body along with epidemiological and clinical effects on the human population. Hence in this review there is examination and presenting of arguments in relation to the sources, properties and types of POPs in the atmosphere along with examining the toxicity, analytical techniques and monitoring of atmospheric and biological concentration of POPs in the human population.