Preface

Persistent organic pollutants are organic compounds that for their persistent nature require scientific attention and study. It is with this in mind that authors with different backgrounds and specialties have written a number of interesting articles that are now compounded in this book. It is hoped that readers will find it useful and interesting.

The originality of the articles is ascertained and the work has gone through strict standards that make for interesting reading.

Acknowledgment

The work could not be completed without the assistance of the following:

First of all I wish to thank the Almighty God for the opportunity to edit this book on persis‐ tent organic pollutants. I also wish to thank Ms. Marijana Francetic, Author Service Manag‐ er, for her guidance and patience in assisting me to carry out the editing of the articles sent by the authors. I also wish to thank Ms. Lily Vugah of the Department of Geomatic Engi‐ neering of KNUST for her assistance with IT in editing this work.

**Dr. Stephen Kudom Donyinah**

Department of Petroleum Engineering College of Engineering Knust, Kumasi, Ghana

**Chapter 1**

**Provisional chapter**

**Introductory Chapter: Persistent Organic Pollutants**

**Introductory Chapter: Persistent Organic Pollutants** 

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are chemicals of global concern due to their potential for long-range transport, persistence in the environment, ability to biomagnify and bioaccumulate in ecosystems, as well as their significant negative effects on human health and the environment. The WHO further indicates humans are exposed to these chemicals in a variety of ways: mainly through the food we eat but also through the air we breathe, in the outdoors, in the indoors and at the workplace. The WHO further explains that many products used in our daily lives may contain POPs, which have been added to improve product characteristics, such as flame retardants or surfactants. This property renders POPs to be found virtually everywhere on our planet in measurable concentrations [1].

According to the WHO report, the most commonly encountered POPs are organochlorine pesticides, such as DDT, industrial chemicals, most notably polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), as well as unintentional by-products of many industrial processes, especially polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDD) and dibenzofurans (PCDF), commonly known as 'dioxins' [1].

The WHO report further indicates that POPs biomagnify throughout the food chain and bioaccumulate in organisms. The highest concentrations of POPs are thus found in organisms

> © 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2019 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,

distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

DOI 10.5772/intechopen.82465

**(POPs)**

**1. About POPs**

**(POPs)**

Stephen Kudom Donyinah

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.82465

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

**2. How POPS are manifested chemically in life**

**3. Characteristics of POPs**

Stephen Kudom DonyinahAdditional information is available at the end of the chapter

#### **Introductory Chapter: Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) Introductory Chapter: Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)**

DOI 10.5772/intechopen.82465
