The document discusses persistent organic pollutants (POPs), which are toxic organic chemicals that remain in the environment for long periods and accumulate in the food chain, posing risks to human and environmental health. POPs are categorized into intentionally produced compounds, like PCBs and DDT, and unintentionally produced substances, such as dioxins, arising from industrial processes and combustion. The key environmental properties of POPs include their persistence, bioaccumulation, long-range transport capabilities, and high toxicity.

1. RAYAT BAHRA UNIVERSITY,
MOHALI
Presented by: Kuya Kabalo
M.P.H 1st Sem.

2. Organic pollutants

3. Introduction
• Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are organic
chemicals that can persist in the environment for a
longer period due to their non-biodegradability.
• The pervasive and bio-accumulative behavior of
POPs makes them highly toxic to the environmental
species including plants, animals, and humans

4. Cont.…
• They persist for long periods of time in the
environment and can accumulate and pass from one
species to the next through the food chain

5. Classification of POPs
• Intentionally
• Un intentionally

6. Cont.…
• Intentionally produced chemicals currently or once
used in agriculture, disease control, manufacturing,
or industrial processes.
• Examples include PCBs, which have been useful in
a variety of industrial applications (e.g., in electrical
transformers and large capacitors, as hydraulic and
heat exchange fluids, and as additives to paints and
lubricants)

7. • and DDT, which is still used to control mosquitoes
that carry malaria in some parts of the world

8. Intentionally produced pops
• Pesticides
• Pharmaceuticals
• chemicals

9. Cont.…
• Unintentionally produced chemicals, such as
dioxins, that result from some industrial processes
and from combustion (for example, municipal and
medical waste incineration and backyard burning of
trash).

10. Unintentionally produced pops
• By products
• Transformation and degradation products
• Combustion residual ,gas exhaust

11. Cont.…
• PCBs
• Hexachlorobenzene
• PAHs
• Brominated dioxins
• Dioxins

12. Environmental properties
Persistence—POPs are extremely resistant to
physical, chemical, and biological degradation.
They have long half-lives in soil, water, and air.
Bioaccumulation—They accumulate in the
organism to a level which can be harmful to the
human health and environment.
.

13. Cont.…
• Ability for long range transport—It can
be transported by the environmental media
to far sites where they have never been used
or produced, such as in the Arctic regions.
• Toxicity—POPs are extremely toxic and pose a
threat both to the human health and the
environment

14. Health effects of POPs
• Exposure to POPs can lead to potential risk of
adverse health effects including cancer, allergies,
reproductive disorder, endocrine and immune
system disruption, obesity, diabetes

16. References
• L. Fitzgerald, D.S. Wikoff, in Encyclopedia of
Toxicology (Third Edition), 2014
• Roland Kallenborn, ... Eva Brorström-Lundén,
in Comprehensive Analytical Chemistry, 2015