Chemometric comparison of polychlorinated biphenyl residues and toxicologically active polychlorinated biphenyl congeners in the eggs of Forster's Terns (Sterna fosteri)

• Published in: Archives of environmental contamination and toxicology 1991-02, Vol.20 (2), p.183-199
• Main Authors: Schwartz, Ted R., Stalling, David L.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Freshwater; Sterna forsteri
• ISSN: 0090-4341; 1432-0703
• DOI: 10.1007/BF01055903

The separation and characterization of complex mixtures of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) is approached from the perspective of a problem in chemometrics. A technique for quantitative determination of PCB congeners is described as well as an enrichment technique designed to isolate only those congener residues which induce mixed aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylase enzyme activity. A congener-specific procedure is utilized for the determination of PCBs in which n-alkyl trichloroacetates are used as retention index marker compounds. Retention indices are reproducible in the range of plus or minus 0.05 to plus or minus 0.7 depending on the specific congener. A laboratory data base system developed to aid in the editing and quantitation of data generated from capillary gas chromatography was employed to quantitate chromatographic data. Chemometric applications are discussed for evaluation of Aroclor mixture analysis and compositional description of environmental residues of PCBs in eggs of Forster's terns (Sterna fosteri ) collected from colonies near Lake Poygan and Green Bay, Wisconsin.