Development of an analytical method for the determination of congener specific PCBs in selected polymeric packaging materials.

Abstract

at least 18 and perhaps up to 36 of the 209 congeners have potential for toxicity due to their abundance in fish/animal tissue and their demonstrated enzyme induction effects (McFarland & Clark 1989, Tanabe 1988). Recent research has focused on the use of polymeric materials as cleanup and bioconcentration tools and for the analysis of PCBs and other organic chemicals from water, soil and lipophilic media (Huckins et al. 1990, Zabik et al. 1992). In food packaging, there is a need for research on issues such as the migration of PCBs from packaging materials to packaged foods or the reverse case, the sorption of PCBs from contaminated foods by the packaging material. The purpose of this study was to develop the methodology for the determination of specific PCB congeners in selected polymeric packaging materials used for the packaging of foods. Once the method is developed, it will be possible to investigate the effect of the chemical composition and physical characteristics of food polymers on the potential sorption of selected PCB congeners ranging from tri to deca chlorinated PCBs.