The organizing committee welcome you to the sixth International PCB Workshop where scientists and representatives from different authorities will discuss the very latest information on the occurrence and effects of the environmental pollutants, known as PCBs (Polychlorinated Biphenyls) as well as current and potential actions in order to reduce future effects. We also welcome you to the medieval town of Visby located on the beautiful Swedish island of Gotland located in the centre of the Baltic Proper.

This workshop invites oral and poster contributions illustrating the importance of a range of issues related to PCBs and its occurrence in the environment. The workshop will cover different aspects of PCBs from analytical issues, effects in the environment and on human health. There will also be one or more sessions on actions to reduce PCB exposure including legal and practical aspects.

The tentative program includes: Sources of PCBs in food and the environment

This topic includes identification and quantification of current sources as well as estimations of the relative importance of secondary sources and the impact of long distance transport versus local sources.

Origin of PCBs currently found in food, feed and biota, including humans
EU has issued limits for PCBs in a number of different foodstuffs. The limits for fish as eel, herring and salmon from a number of different catchment areas are exceeded in Europe. We also welcome presentations and discussions on PCBs in non-fish food as well as PCBs in other biota. We plan to arrange a special session with support from European Food Safety Authority, EFSA focussed on human exposure to dioxin like and non-dioxin like PCBs via food. The meeting venue is located in central Baltic Proper where the concentrations of PCBs in fatty fish often exceed the limits for commercial selling. It is therefore likely that much attention will be paid to PCBs in fish from the Baltic and other contaminated catchment areas.

The relative importance of non-dioxin like (NDL) PCBs
The European Commission has pointed out the need to improve the health and well-being through a higher quality of their food, including improved control of food contaminants. Since NDL-PCBs constitute a major part of the PCBs found in food and human tissues, it has become an urgent matter to advance the understanding of their toxicity. Based on this, the European Commission has launched ATHON, an ongoing research project sponsored by the 6th Framework of Research and Technological Development of the EU, Priority 5 (Food Quality and Safety). The project will be performing its final reporting in 2010 and a special session focussing the main results from areas as:

• High-purity NDL-PCBs and mixtures and quality controlled analysis
• Exposure models for elucidating toxicity of NDL-PCBs
• Neurotoxicity of NDL-PCBs
• Reproductive and developmental toxicity
• Liver toxicity and tumour promotion by NDL-PCBs
• QSAR modelling of NDL-PCB effect data

PCBs in buildings and contaminated sites
In many countries PCBs was until the 1970s used in building materials such as sealants, acoustic boards, flooring materials and in ?thermopane? windows. It has been shown that the concentrations of PCBs in indoor air are influenced by PCBs in building materials and consequently also human exposure to PCBs. Sweden has decided to perform a nation-wide inventory of PCBs in residential and commercial buildings. Buildings shown to contain PCBs over a certain limit must be remediated 2013, at the latest. PCBs have also been the reason to classify many industrial sites as ?contaminated?. Remediation of some of these sites is underway but this has to be considered during decades rather than years.

We welcome reports on inventories of PCBs in buildings and contaminated sites and on the impact of human exposure via indoor air and from contaminated sites. The remediation of buildings and contaminated sites emphasizes the need for the development of practical tools and remediation techniques that could be of interest for many countries. We also hope to attract presentations on the legal basis for such actions.

We particularly like to welcome presentations on emerging issues for all sessions during the workshop. The program is also relying on You and Your suggestions. We therefore hope that you will contribute to a successful meeting!