Analysis of PCBs in waste oil by enzyme immunoassay

Immunoassays constitute a powerful analytical technique for sensitive, quantitative, fast and economical determination of trace contaminants in environmental monitoring. The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)-has been used extensively to detect numerous medicinal, agricultural and environmental compounds. It is an effective tool for screening samples that will be subsequently analyzed by another method, as well as for rapid, quantitative analysis of a large number of samples. A commercially available kit has been applied successfully to the screening of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in transformer oil samples. The kit uses a competitive inhibition enzyme immunoassay (EIA) for recognition of the PCB structure. The test specificity is restricted to PCBs, with high sensitivity for Aroclors 1016, 1242, 1248, 1254 and 1260. Kit performance was validated by comparison of EIA and GC results for 35 transformer oil samples.