Analysis of persistent organic pollutants using gas chromatography

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are toxic chemicals that resist environmental degradation and bioaccumulate along the food chain, posing a threat to human health and ecosystems. The Stockholm Convention lists several such pollutants, including pesticides, industrial chemicals, and unintentional byproducts. Gas chromatography (GC) is a widely used analytical technique to detect POPs in a variety of environmental and biological matrices, including water, soil, sediments, food, and biological tissues. Before GC analysis, sample preparation plays a critical role in isolating target compounds from complex matrices. After extraction, compounds are separated on a GC column and detected using different detectors. Although GC does not offer structural identification like mass spectrometry, it remains a powerful method for the quantitative analysis of POPs. This review describes the transport of POPs, their hazardous effects and GC-based analyses, and the sample preparation methods used prior to analyses.