Chemosphere
Volume 27, Issue 8
,
October 1993,
Pages 1451-1459
doi:10.1016/0045-6535(93)90239-2 
Copyright © 1993 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.
Requirement for a standardized nomenclature criterium for PCBs: Computer-assisted assignment of correct congener denomination and numbering
Raimon Guitart*, Pedro Puig1 and Jesús Gómez-Catalán2
* Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Autonomous University of Barcelona, E-08193, Bellaterra, Spain
1 Department of Mathematics, Autonomous University of Barcelona, E-08193, Bellaterra, Spain
2 Unit of Legal Medicine and Toxicology, University of Barcelona, Diagonal 643, E-08036, Barcelona, Spain
Received 6 May 1993; accepted 21 June 1993. ; Available online 31 March 2003.
Abstract
Due to the great number of congeners, the use of the correct nomenclature for PCBs is a difficult task, and unfortunately errors in the assignment of chemical denominations are not unusual. We suggest in this paper to correctly apply the rules initially introduced by Ballschmiter and Zell in 1980, which differ from those of the IUPAC. A simple algorithm in BASIC was created to help researchers in this field to denominate all the 209 congeners by their correct Ballschmiter and Zell and/or IUPAC systematic names.
