The Core Group's recommendations were adopted at the Fourth Session of GEMSI (Curacao, 25-31 March 1982), and it was further decided that, to increase the cost effectiveness of the proposed six-month activity noted above, a detailed report would be given on the results obtained during the preliminary period with respect to identification of individual PCB components by gas chromatography and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry as well as to the distribution of individual components between solution and particulate matter. This is the subject of this publication. The methods described here are also appropriate for the estimation of several other halogenated hydrocarbons in seawater. Some of these compounds appear in the same fraction as PCB (e.g. penta- and hexa-chlorobenzene); for the estimation of more polar components, additional GC-ECD analyses are required. The extracts needed for this purpose require only relatively small additional steps in the separation procedures.

Liquid electrical insulating materials, Insulating oils, Electrical insulating materials, Polychlorinated biphenyls, Determination of content, Contaminants, Gas chromatography, Test equipment, Testing conditions, Specimen preparation, Safety measures, Reproducibility