Polychlorinated Biphenyls in Sediments and Mussels from Port Phillip Bay, Victoria, Australia

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are highly-stable man-made compounds which have been used in a variety of applications since the 1930s. The accumulation of PCBs in nature was not known until 1966 (Jensen, 1972) but since then they have been found in waters, soils, sediments and living organisms from all parts of the world (Risebrough et al., 1968; Peakall, 1972, 1975; USDA et al., 1972; Finlay et al., 1976; WHO, 1976). The toxicity of PCBs to living things has been well documented (Peakall, 1972; Higuchi, 1976; WHO, 1976) and evidence suggests that they are accumulated by organisms at all levels of the food chains in the same fashion as DDT and its metabolites (Jensen, 1972).