Preface

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are toxic organic compounds that are resistant to environmental degradation through biological, chemical, and photolytic processes. The most used POPs are polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), lindane, dieldrin, and dioxins. Many POPs are currently used as pesticides, pharmaceuticals, solvents, and industrial chemicals. Because of their persistence, POPs bioaccumulate and affect human health and the environment worldwide. They can be transported by wind and water from one country to another and thus can affect people and wildlife far from where they are used and released. POPs persist for long periods of time in the environment and can accumulate and pass from one species to the next through the food chain, accumulating in the body fat of living organisms.

This book gathers recent research by outstanding experts in monitoring and treatment technologies of POPs as well as their effects on human health and the environment. *Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) - Monitoring, Impact and Treatment*  deals with several aspects of POP monitoring, occurrence, impact, and treatment technologies. The book is divided into two sections containing nine chapters. The first section covers monitoring, impacts, and occurrence in four chapters: Chapter 1 "Endocrine Disruptor Impact on Zebrafish Larvae: Posterior Lateral Line System as a New Target", Chapter 2 "Role and Effect of Persistent Organic Pollutants to Our Environment and Wildlife", Chapter 3 "Impact of PCBs, Furan and Dioxin on Hepatocarcinogenesis", and Chapter 4 "Persistent Organic Pollutants in the Bizerte Lagoon Ecosystem: Occurrence, Distribution, and Ecotoxicological Assessment Using Marine Organism". The second section explains the different techniques used for the treatment of POPs in five chapters: Chapter 5 "Type, Sources, Methods and Treatment of Persistent Organic Pollutants in Wastewater", Chapter 6 "Nonthermal Mechanochemical Destruction of POPs", Chapter 7 "Physiochemical Properties and Removal Methods of Phenolic Compounds from Waste Waters", Chapter 8 "Occurrence and Removal of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)", and Chapter 9 "Recent Developments in the Application of Advanced Oxidative Processes for Remediation of Persistent Organic Pollutants from Water." This volume is a useful resource for researchers and professionals working with POPs.

I would like to express our sincere thanks to Dr. Sally Salaah Eldin Elshalqamy, National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries (NIOF), Alexandria Egypt, and Dr. Sawsan Elateek, Faculty of Agriculture, Ain Shams University, Egypt, for their contribution to the scientific revision of the book's chapters. I would also like to express my thanks to the contributing authors for their hard work and Author Service Manager Ms. Marijana Josipovic at IntechOpen.

> **Dr. Mohamed Nageeb Rashed** Professor, Faculty of Science, Aswan University, Aswan, Egypt

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