Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman: baseline report on occurrence, distribution, and ecological risk assessment.

In the present study, 18 polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) compounds were measured in marine sediments collected from 49 offshore stations in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman in 2019. After the last oceanographic cruise in 2006, no study has been performed on the offshore sediments of this region, and this is the first study on the PCBs in this area. The total amount of PCB compounds in the sediment samples ranged from 74.38 ng kg (near Abu Musa Island) to 1212.98 ng kg (near Siri and Kish Island). The maximum and minimum values of the individual detected PCB compounds were 175.88 ng kg (PCB52) and 2.09 ng kg (PCB156), respectively. The levels of total PCBs detected in sediments were lower than the Canadian interim sediment quality guideline value of 21500 ng kg for marine sediments. The sedimentary mass inventories for ΣPCBs were 0.6 and 0.2 mt for the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, respectively.