PERSISTENT ORGANIC POLLUTANTS IN URBAN AND PERIURBAN AREAS

Persistent organic pollutants are organic compounds that are resistant to environmental degradation through chemical, biological and photolytic processes. Because of this, they have been observed to persist in the environment, to be capable of long-range transport, bioaccumulate in human and animal tissues, biomagnify in food chains, and to have significant impact on human health and the environment. In this study the soil samples are collected from Bucharest and Ilfov county, from representative areas like gardens, parks, industrial zones. The compouds of interes are extracted with solvents and analysed by gas chromatography. The results indicate that organochlorine insecticides still contaminate the samples collected from periurban areas, while PCBs contaminate the soil samples from the center of Bucharest. The concentrations exceed normal values, but are smaller than the alert threshold.