Monitoring of cyclic organochlorines in the marine environment

Cyclic organochlorines are highly hydrophobic chemicals which usually possess a high persistence to microbial breakdown. These behavioural aspects determine the suitability of each environmental compartment for monitoring purposes, which is discussed.It is concluded, that monitoring of (cyclic) organochlorines should only be executed for compounds about which solid information is available on their environmental behaviour in abiotic and biotic environmental compartments. Under these conditions benthic invertebrates which use glycogen as their main energy-depot, appear to be the most suitable tool for environmental monitoring of lipophilic compounds. Concentrations should be expressed on the basis of (total) extractable lipids.The organisms to be compared should be sampled at a time when they have a similar physiological condition. This does not automatically mean synoptic sampling.Multi-component mixtures, such as PCB's, should be monitored on the basis of (selected) individual components in order to account for differences in behaviour of each component between different environmental compartments and animal species.Some representatives of the compounds discussed are strong inducers of mixed function oxygenase (MFO) enzyme systems. Therefore it should be investigated, if monitoring of MFO activity in addition to concentrations can be regarded as an early warning system of additive effects.