Green Tutorial:

PCB is not always PCB!

In the electronic sector the abbreviation “PCB” usually stands for Printed Circuit Board.

To the chemist or the environmentalist this abbreviation means “Poly Chlorinated Biphenyls”, which is a group of chemical substances that are very persistent and bio-accumulative, and suspected of causing reproduction-defects in e.g. birds of prey.

Poly-Chlorinated Biphenyls was until 1980 used as an additive to oil in high-voltage transformers, in capacitors for single-phase motors, and in ballast-capacitors for fluorescent lighting.

This shared use of abbreviation might sometimes cause confusion, which hopefully is avoided by this explanation.