PCB’s (Polychlorinated Biphenyl)
Polychlorinated Biphenyl also known as PCB’s for short, are a type of man-made organic chemicals belonging to a family of chlorinated hydrocarbons. (Chlorinated hydrocarbons are molecules that are being characterized by the occurrence of a chlorine atom chemically bonded to a carbon atom.) PCB’s were being used in many factories for commercial and industrial purposes. They were very popular due to the fact that they were non-flammable, had a high boiling point, were chemically stable and had electrical insulating properties. Eventually years after PCB’s were made people started to realize that they were negatively effecting the environment. It was banned in the year 1979 but is still being put into the environment from hazardous waste sites and is still a huge problem. PCB’s are causing many diseases in animals, humans and are polluting the environment so that is why people are trying to put a stop to them being dumped into the wild. Polychlorinated Biphenyls were being manufactured in the year 1929 up until 1979 when they were banned. PCB has many uses such as being used for hydraulic equipment, electrical equipment like power transformers and heat transfer. They were also used as plasticisers, plastic, in paints in rubber products, for carbonless copy paper and for pigments in dyes. Due to the fact that PCB’s had so many uses and was very popular in the past it was used a lot. PCB’s are very hard to break down and can stay in the environment for a very long time.