Afterwards, the radioactive debris and soils were placed in a landfill on the island, along with residue from Agent Orange containers returned from Southeast Asia after the Vietnam War, PCBs, PAHs, dioxins, and sarin nerve gas from the Soviet Union and East Germany.

Old vacuum-pump oils that were produced before circa 1980 often contain a mixture of several different dangerous polychlorinated biphenyls ( PCBs ), which are highly toxic, carcinogenic, persistent organic pollutants.

PCBs were widely used as dielectric and coolant fluids, for example in transformers, capacitors, and electric motors.

According to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry ( ATSDR ), approximately 99 percent of the PCBs used by U. S. industry were produced by the Monsanto Chemical Company.

PCBs were used as coolants and insulating fluids ( transformer oil ) for transformers and capacitors, such as those used in old fluorescent light ballasts.

PCBs were also used as plasticizers in paints and cements, stabilizing additives in flexible PVC coatings of electrical wiring and electronic components, pesticide extenders, cutting oils, reactive flame retardants, lubricating oils, hydraulic fluids, and sealants ( for caulking in schools and commercial buildings ), adhesives, wood floor finishes ( such as Fabulon and other products of Halowax in the U. S .), paints, de-dusting agents, water-proofing compounds, casting agents, vacuum pump fluids, fixatives in microscopy, surgical implants, and in carbonless copy (" NCR ") paper.

PCBs, originally termed " chlorinated diphenyls ," were commercially produced as complex mixtures containing multiple isomers at different degrees of chlorination.

PCBs were also commonly used as stabilizing additives in the manufacture of flexible PVC coatings for electrical wiring and electronic components to enhance the heat and fire resistance of the PVC.

Between 1936 and 1937, there were several medical cases and papers released on the possible link between PCBs and its detrimental health effects.

In 1966, they were determined by Swedish chemist Dr. Soren Jensen to be an environmental contaminant, and it was Dr. Jensen, according to a 1994 article in Sierra, who named them PCBs.

Stone of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation ( NYSDEC ) who first published his findings in the early 1970s that PCBs were leaking from transformers and had contaminated the soil at the bottom of utility poles.

In the UK, closed uses of PCBs in new equipment were banned in 1981, when nearly all UK PCB synthesis ceased, but closed uses in existing equipment containing in excess of 5 litres of PCBs were not stopped until December 2000.

In Japan, PCBs were first produced by Kanegafuchi Chemical Co. Ltd. ( Kaneka ) in 1954 and production continued until 1972 when the Japanese government banned the production, use, and import of PCBs.

It is unlikely that a full inventory of global PCB production will ever be accurately tallied, as there were factories in Poland, East Germany, and Austria that produced unknown amounts of PCBs.

In 1999, the Dioxine affair caused serious trouble for the Belgian government, when PCBs were found in chicken and eggs.

PCBs were widely used as dielectric and coolant fluids in transformers, capacitors, and electric motors.

According to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry ( ATSDR ), approximately 99 percent of the PCBs in the United States were produced by the Monsanto Chemical Company.

Monsanto also was a leading manufacturer of controversial products such as the insecticide DDT, PCBs which were used as electrical insulators, and the defoliant Agent Orange.

Monsanto settled some of these cases and won the others, on the grounds that it had clearly told its customers that PCBs were dangerous chemicals and that protective procedures needed to implemented.

In 1997, polychlorinated biphenyl congeners ( PCBs ), compounds common in transformers, hydraulic fluids, paint additives and pesticides were determined in sediments and oysters sampled from Manila Bay.

The internals consist of unmodified 32X PCBs, with a stripped down Mega Drive ( lacking things like controller I / O and sound ) used to boot the 32X, and some additional hardware for measuring the pen's position and SmartMedia card storage.

These type of PCBs are considered as contributors to overall dioxin toxicity, and the term dioxin is often used interchangeably when the environmental and toxic impact of these compounds is considered.

It is thought that the incident resulted from the contamination of fuel oil used in a drying burner at a single feed processor, with PCBs.

It is thought that the incident resulted from the contamination of fuel oil used in a drying burner at a single feed processor, with PCBs.

These included pentachlorophenol ( a wood preservative ) and PCBs ( mainly used as stabilizing agents in transformer oil ).

Some versions of cordwood construction used soldered single-sided PCBs as the interconnection method ( as pictured ), allowing the use of normal-leaded components.

The cordwood method of construction was used only rarely once semiconductor electronics and PCBs became widespread.

The first PCBs used through-hole technology, mounting electronic components by leads inserted through holes on one side of the board and soldered onto copper traces on the other side.

Point-to-point construction refers to a non-automated method of construction of electronics circuits widely used before the use of printed circuit boards ( PCBs ) and automated assembly gradually became widespread following their introduction in the 1950s.

Electric guitar amplifier manufacturer Marshall have reissued some of their older models, using point-to-point construction as a design feature, although their standard products have long used PCBs.

Until it stopped production in 1977, Monsanto was the source of 99 % of the polychlorinated biphenyls ( PCBs ) used by U. S. industry.

In the early 1990s Monsanto faced several lawsuits over harm caused by PCBs from workers at companies such as Westinghouse that bought PCBs from Monsanto and used them to build electrical equipment.

There is a similar risk from eating dirt near roads that existed prior to the phaseout of tetra-ethyl lead in petrol ( in some countries ) or prior to the cessation of the use of contaminated oil ( either used or containing toxic PCBs or dioxin ) to settle dust.

Under these conditions water becomes a fluid with unique properties that can be used to advantage in the destruction of hazardous wastes such as PCBs.

Another example is the EPA renaming sewage sludge to biosolids, and allowing it to be used as fertilizer, despite the fact that it often contains many hazardous materials including PCBs, dioxin, arsenic, cadmium, lead, and asbestos.

It is notable as a starting material for the production of polychlorinated biphenyls ( PCBs ), which were once widely used as dielectric fluids and heat transfer agents.

PCBs ( polychlorinated biphenyls )-found in coolant and insulating fluids, pesticide extenders, adhesives, and hydraulic fluids.

Old power transformers are a major legacy source of PCBs.

Concern over the toxicity and persistence ( chemical stability ) of PCBs in the environment led the United States Congress to ban their domestic production in 1979, although some use continues in closed systems such as capacitors and transformers.

* Significant other work and maintenance ( for example, 30 transformers containing PCBs will be replaced ).

Haloaromatics include the former Aroclors ( Monsanto Company trademark for polychlorinated biphenyls, PCBs ), once widely used in power transformers and capacitors and in building caulk, the former Halowaxes ( Union Carbide trademark for polychlorinated naphthalenes, PCNs ), once used for electrical insulation, and the chlorobenzenes and their derivatives, used for disinfectants, pesticides such as dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane ( DDT, 1, 1, 1-trichloro-2, 2-bis ( p-chlorophenyl ) ethane ), herbicides such as 2, 4-D ( 2, 4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid ), askarel dielectrics ( mixed with PCBs, no longer used in most countries ), and chemical feedstocks.

Between 1973 and 1980, electrical transformers, some of which contained PCBs, were reportedly stored at the site.