A survey of the digested s
ludge from 14 U.K. wastewatertreatment p
lants was carried out to obtain contemporaryU.K. data on the concentrations of certain c
lasses of persistentorganic compounds for which data are scarce and toassess whether U.K. s
ludge was
like
ly to comp
ly with thes
ludge
limits for PCBs and PAHs proposed by the EuropeanUnion. Tota
l PAH (24 compounds) concentrations rangedfrom 67 to 370 mg/kg dw, in
line with data from other countries;a
ll the samp
les wou
ld exceed the proposed EU
limit.Tota
l PCB concentrations were 110-440
g/kg dw, we
llbe
low the proposed EU
limit. Tota
l PCN concentrations rangedfrom 50 to 190
g/kg. Tota
l synthetic musk concentrationsranged from 2.1 to 86 mg/kg dw; there were a few veryhigh concentrations of HHCB and AHTN in the samp
les. Tota
lconcentrations of the short- and medium-chainedpo
lych
lorinated a
lkanes ranged between 7 and 200 mg/kgand between 30 and 9700 mg/kg, respective
ly. Thesevery high concentrations are indicative of chemica
ls withnumerous and ongoing diffuse sources.