Dataset for hydroxylated polychlorinated biphenyls are emerging legacy pollutants in contaminated sediments

We measured the concentrations of 837 hydroxylated polychlorinated biphenyls (OH-PCBs, in 275 chromatographic peaks) and 209 polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs, in 174 chromatographic peaks) in sediments from New Bedford Harbor in Massachusetts, Altavista wastewater lagoon in Virginia, and the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal in Indiana, USA, and in Aroclors 1016, 1242, 1248, and 1254. We used the correlation between homologs and the peak responses to quantify the full suite of OH-PCBs including those without authentic standards available. We found that OH-PCB levels are approximately 0.4% of the PCB levels in sediments and less than 0.0025% in Aroclors. The OH-PCB congener distributions of sediments are different from those of Aroclors and are different by sites. We also identify a previously unknown compound, 4-OH-PCB52, which together with 4'-OH-PCB18 make up almost 30% of the OH-PCBs in New Bedford Harbor sediment but less than 1.2% in the Aroclors and 3.3% in any other sediments. This indicates site-specific environmental transformations of PCBs to OH-PCBs. We conclude that the majority of OH-PCBs in these sediments are generated in the environment. Our findings suggest that these toxic breakdown products of PCBs are prevalent in PCB-contaminated sediment and present an emerging concern for humans and ecosystems. The data used in the study is in this dataset.