The test has been applied in several studies analyzing sediment extracts in different states of pollution. Murk et al. (1996) studied the presence of PCBs, PCDDs and PCDFs in sediment samples from a number of locations in the Netherlands, and extracts of both whole sediment and porewater were tested in the H4IIE-luc assay. In the case of cleaned-up sediment extracts, H4IIE-luc -TEQ values varied between 70.0 and 4.2 fmol/g, the latter represents a clean sediment sample. In unpurified porewater these values ranged between 317.4 fmol/ml and 26.4 fmol/ml (Behnisch et al., 2001b).