ducing polychlorinated biphenyl congeners in hazardous waste

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which have been commercially manufac-tured since 1929, are complex mixtures of many congeners and several homologues. They have been used in a variety of industrial and non-industrial applications which has allowed large quantities to be released into the workplace and environment1-6. Based on a 198 1 estimate, as many as 17 million pounds of PCBs were entering land disposal sites in the U.S.A. annually (for a total of 385 million pounds)5,7. While their toxicity varies among isomer and toxicity test species, PCBs have been suffi-ciently implicated in animal and human toxicity to warrant their ban in the U.S.A.‘. Most of the early methods of analysis of PCBs were directed toward commer-cial products (such as Aroclors). It is still common to report results as ppm PCB-as Aroclor 1242, 1254, etc.s,9. Disposal of PCBs is based on a generic classification as PCB type and quantitated as> 50 or> 500 ppm. This is at best an approximation when the sample matches the standard, and is not applicable when microbial deg-radation and/or mammalian metabolism preclude visual matchingslO,l l. The prob-lem of PCB analysis has become more complex with the discovery of specific congene