On 10th April, 2013 the IARC*, the International Organism for the Cancer Research of the United Nations, modified the classification of the PCBs agent, changing it from Group 2A to Group 1.
This means that the PCBs, which prior to 10th April 2013 were considered “probable carcinogenic” are today included within the “carcinogenic for human beings”.
Please see the Synthesis document or download the original report fron IARC website
In particular, this reclassification is based upon the selective determination (among the 209 possible congeners) of 12 most dangerous “Dioxin Like” congeners (PCBs: 77,81,105,114,118,1123,126,156,157,167,169,189) correlatable to their Factor of Equivalent Toxicity (TEF).
This topic is the point of force by Sea Marconi since its foundation; the guidelines, as well as the norms of the sector (i.e.: IEC 10-38 2003 and CENELEC CLC/TR 50503 -2010 art.6.61 page14; Annex H; Annex I) on the subject of the management of electrical equipment with oil contaminated by PCBs that during the last twenty years have benefited from the contribution in competence and expertise matured by Sea Marconi.
During the last international conference in Geneva the year 2028 was mentioned as the target for the complete decontamination of the planet from PCBs. However, the normative scenario worldwide is extremely variable: in Italy and Europe, the limit for PCBs is 50 mg/kg (even if the threshold of 25 mg/kg is a shield against possible temporary stocking, the disposal of oils or future revisions of the norm), but in some Counties the limit has been reduced to 2 mg/kg. There are also cases like Japan where the legal limit for PCBs is 0.5 mg/kg.
Naturally, Sea Marconi is on the front line in the fight against PCBs. Already in the 80s, the company developed and patented a solution (CDP Process®) that is currently considered the best available technique (BAT) according to the Ministry of the Environment for the decontamination of electrical equipment contaminated by PCBs in operation and at end of life.
The “PCB Free Program” by Sea Marconi includes products, services and technologies finalised toward a correct management of the life cycle (LCM – Life Cycle Management) of transformers, capacitors, reactors etc. with oil and PCBs. Among them there are for example, the analysis of PCB accreditated by ACCREDIA and the subsequent diagnoses; the CDP Process®, i.e. the treatment for the elimination of PCBs from the oil and transformer with patented and proprietary reagents; there are also kits for the field determination of PCBs (Kit SM-TCPS); the training in house and at the Customer’s site; the management of environmental crises caused by the contamination of soils, waters, air.
The constant research on the topic of PCBs is constantly active with Sea Marconi and the new classification by IARC is a stimulus to continue in the development of advanced analytical methods for the determination of selected congeners of PCBs.
*IARC or CIRC is the acronym for the International Agency for Research on Cancer, or Centre International de Recherche sur le Cancer the international organism located in Lyon, France, which among its tasks, dictates the guidelines on the classification of the risks relative to tumours in chemical and physical agents. The inter-government agency IARC is a part of the UN World Health Organization (WHO).