Environ Sci Pollut Res (2014) 21:6269–6275 DOI 10.1007/s11356-014-2706-1
EDITORIAL
7th International PCB Workshop: Chemical mixtures in a complex world Jean-François Narbonne & Larry W. Robertson
Received: 10 February 2014 / Accepted: 26 February 2014 / Published online: 15 March 2014 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014
The 7th International PCB Workshop was held in Arcachon, France in June 2012. France was a major producer of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs, about 10 % of the world production in the 1970s) and remains a country with significant PCB exposure in the general population. Therefore, the question of risk assessment and management is a subject of major interest for national health authorities, as evident in recent efforts in PCB risk assessment involving large-scale monitoring programs in environmental compartments (aquatic and terrestrial), in foods (TDS), and in humans (general population and fish consumers). Therefore, the meeting began with an overview of French PCB history as an introduction to the topic.
Opening seminar: 25 years of PCB risk assessment in France The scientific story began in the early 1970s when the first analysis for PCBs was carried out by R. Mestres in Montpellier. His analytical technique was then employed by J.L. Monod in Marseille on environmental samples taken on an international oceanographic cruise (of particular interest was