Biota Debromination in Aqueous Media

Abstract In the past half-century, scientists were mostly concerned with polychlorinated compounds (dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), etc.). But in the last decades, polybrominated compounds [especially polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) present in various materials as flame retardants] became more and more present in the environment, causing a new set of problems, and subsequently challenges. Therefore researchers focused on PBDE degradation processes, one of them being the microbiological one. However, there are other brominated compounds polluting the environment (e.g., hexabromocyclododecane, tetrabromobisphenol A, etc.) that suffer similar or different fates during various biota processes (photodegradation, phytoremediation, or microbiological decontamination). We are making a short literature screening of these naturally occurring processes destined to remove such an alternative threat.