Chlordane production

Since the 1950s, China began to develop techniques to produce chlor-dane, and the production capacity and output steadily increased into the 1970s. The annual output of chlordane reached 465 MT in 1974, but chlordane production gradually stopped after 1975 due to faulty techniques and severe occupational harm to workers. However, the productive capacity of chlordane was rebuilt after 1988 because of a serious termite disaster in the south of China and the lack of effective and inexpensive termicides. There have been approximately 20 chlordane producers in China, but all of them were on pilot scale. In 2003, there were nine plants producing chlordane crude oil and emulsifiable solution in China, and six of them reported an output of 450 MT in total. Figure 3.2 shows the annual output of chlordane crude oil in China. It was shown that the output of chlordane was up to 834 MT in 1998, with a capacity of 1480 MT per year. 

Polychlorinated Pesticides. A once substantial but now diminished use for DCPD is in the preparation of chlorinated derivatives for further use or synthesis into pesticide compounds (see Insectcontrol technology). Soil permanence and solubiUty of the products in human fatty tissues have considerably restricted the use of these compounds. The more prominent chlorinated pesticides were aldrin, dieldrin, chlordane, and heptachlor, all of which use hexachorocyclopentadiene as a starting material. Aldrin and dieldrin are no longer used in the U.S. Chlordane and heptachlor are stiU produced, but only for export use. 

Toxic Effects on the Blood-Forming Tissues Reduced formation of erythrocytes and other elements of blood is an indication of damage to the bone marrow. Chemical compounds toxic to the bone marrow may cause pancytopenia, in which the levels of all elements of blood are reduced. Ionizing radiation, benzene, lindane, chlordane, arsenic, chloramphenicol, trinitrotoluene, gold salts, and phenylbutazone all induce pancytopenia. If the damage to the bone marrow is so severe that the production of blood elements is totally inhibited, the disease state is termed aplastic anemia. In the occupational environment, high concentrations of benzene can cause aplastic anemia. 

Heptachlor and cw-chlordane, both of which are chiral, produce caged or half-caged structures (Figure 1.8) on irradiation, and these products have been identified in biota from the Baltic, the Arctic, and the Antarctic (Buser and Muller 1993). 

Baser H-R, MD Muller (1993) Enantioselective determination of chlordane components, metabolites, and photoconversion products in environmental samples using chiral high-resolution gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. Environ Sci Technol 27 1211-1220. 

No valid argument can be presented alleging that DDT and chlordan spray in manufactured food products cannot be avoided. Therefore, this requires an interpretation of the Federal Food and Drug viewpoint to be that no DDT or chlordan will be tolerated in a manufactured food product. On the other hand, nothing in this federal act prohibits the use of. DDT and chlordan sprays, provided they do not actually contaminate the product. 

Of the 188 replies received, 158 stated that these agencies have no regulations governing the use of DDT and chlordan, but 38 added that they are considering the issuance of such regulations. Presumably, each department in this group of 158 depends upon the standard adulterations clause, embodied in most food laws, which prohibits the presence of any poisonous, deleterious, filthy, or decomposed substance in a food product, as the means of regulating the use of residual sprays. 

The plant inspection program of the American baking industry has shown that 80% of sanitation problems can be avoided by good housekeeping. Proper use of residual spray material, such as DDT and chlordan, will control casual invaders—roaches, ant, flies, silver-fish, dermestids, fungus beetles, and meal worms— without contamination of food products. 

Objection has been raised to the use of DDT and chlordan in food establishments because of the possibility that mists may spread onto the product zone of equipment and onto surfaces of food or ingredient mixes. Experience has shown that the use of the paint spray nozzle effectively prevents this. As large a pressure is used as will lay a flat stream of liquid there is no mist and should be no drip. Admittedly, other sprays are used in baking establishments, and special precautions must be taken to keep DDT or chlordan solutions from being confused with these. 

The baking industry feels that it needs residual sprays of the character of chlordan and DDT. It has no fear of contamination of the finished product, for there is far less danger from contamination here than there has been in the past from such poisons as sodium fluoride powders, which were used for many years without adverse publicity, despite infrequent food poisonings from their use. 

Davidow (19), of the Food and Drug Administration, has described a colorimetric method applicable to technical chlordan. The method is based on the observation that when technical chlordan is heated with a mixture of diethanolamine and methanolic potassium hydroxide, a purple color is produced. When known amounts of this insecticide were added to cabbage, pears, and fresh and rancid rat fat, recoveries of 74 to 104% of the insecticide were obtained. However, because two crystalline isomers of chlordan isolated from the technical product do not give a colored reaction product with the reagent, further investigation of the method is being made. The red color obtained when technical chlordan is heated with pyridine, alcoholic alkali, and ethylene glycol monoethyl ether, as described by Ard (2), likewise fails with the crystalline isomers of this insecticide. 

Figure 3. Rate of Chloride Production from Chlordan Constituents...

In rabbits under light amytal anesthesia, chlordan has no direcr effect on the blood pressure, but produces a type of respiration having many characteristics in common with Cheyne-Stokes type. The generalized tremors, opisthotonus, tonic and clonic convulsions, produced by chlordan were decreased or abolished and respiration restored to normal by suitable injections of the sodium salts of amytal, phenobarbital, and pentothal. The LD60 of chlordan, which was about 20 mg. per kg. on intravenous administration to intact rabbits, was increased to about 60 mg. per kg. through the antidotal action of the barbiturates. An unidentified chlorine-containing degradation product with acidic properties was recovered from the urine of rabbits treated with chlordan. Approximately one third of its chlorine content was set free on hydrolysis at 100° C. with sodium hydroxide in either absolute alcohol or in water. 

The metabolic fate of chlordan was studied in rabbits by analysis of the relative chlorine content of chlordan added to normal rabbit s urine and of the chlorine content of the urinary excretory product. The method of analysis was similar to the one previously used (, 4) In addition, hydrolysis of chlordan and of the urinary excretory products was carried out by adding solid sodium hydroxide to saturation to a 10-ml. solution of these substances in hot absolute ethyl alcohol. The mixture was refluxed for 3 hours in a round-bottomed flask immersed in boiling water and the amount of inorganic chlorine determined. Hydrolysis was similarly carried out with solutions of the respective substances in aqueous sodium hydroxide. 

The conversion in the animal body of at least some of the water-insoluble chlordan to a water-soluble degradation product must facilitate the elimination of the poison through its excretion into the urine by the kidneys. Moreover, the degradation of chlordan as shown in the present experiments may be a mechanism for its detoxification, as in the case of DDT (1). Only the isolation of the degradation product, its identification, and a study of its toxicity can determine this point. 

Velsicol Chemical Corp. Wastewater from pesticide production, contains NaCl, NaOH, hex, chlordane... 

Technical chlordane is a mixture of chlorinated hydrocarbons that has been used as an insecticide since its introduction in 1947. Chlordane was the first cyclodiene insecticide to be used in agriculture and was the second most important organochlorine insecticide in the United States in 1976/1977, behind toxaphene, with an estimated annual production of 9 million kg (Nomeir and Hajjar 1987). Chlordane is a leading insecticide in controlling termites, with about 1.2 million homes in the United States alone treated annually for this purpose (Nomeir and Hajjar 1987). 

All use of chlordane was banned in Norway in 1967 (Ingebrigtsen et al. 1984). In August 1975, the USEPA issued its intent to suspend registrations and prohibit production of all pesticides containing heptachlor or chlordane, based on evidence of carcinogenicity (Glooschenko and Lott 1977). On July 1, 1983, chlordane use was prohibited in the United States for any purpose except to control underground termites. A similar situation exists in Japan (Ohno et al. 1986 Tojo et al. 1986). 

Technical chlordane is an organochlorine compound first introduced into the United States in 1947 in a variety of formulations for use as a broad-spectrum pesticide. By 1974, about 9.5 million kg of chlordane were being produced annually. Concern over the potential carcinogenicity of chlordane has led to sharply curtailed production. Since 1983, chlordane use in the United States has been prohibited, except for control of underground termites. 

Theus, S.A., Tabor, D.R., Barnett, J.B. Alteration of macrophage TNF production by prenatal chlordane exposure, FASEB J., 5, A1347, 1991. 

Terrence Collins is the Thomas Lord Professor of Chemistry at Carnegie Mellon University who contends that the dangers of chlorine chemistry are not adequately addressed by either academe or industry, and alternatives to chlorine and chlorine processors must be pursued. He notes, Many serious pollution episodes are attributable to chlorine products and processes. This information also belongs in chemistry courses to help avoid related mistakes. Examples include dioxin-contaminated 2,4,5-T, extensively used as a peacetime herbicide and as a component of the Vietnam War s agent orange chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs the pesticides aldrin, chlordane, dieldrin, DDT, endrin, heptachlor, hexachlorobenzene, lindane, mirex, and toxaphene pentachlorophe-... 

A workshop participant reported that China has phased out the production and use of five of the POPs covered by the Stockholm Convention—aldrin, dieldrin, endrin, toxaphene and heptachlor. He explained that chlordane and mirex are still produced in limited quantities for termite protection and hexachlorobenzene (HCB) is still produced for use as a chemical feedstock. Mirex... 

Note At present, there are no cost-effective alternatives or alternative technologies for cholordane and mirex as termiticide, and DDT as the additive of antifouling paint in China. China reportedly plans to eliminate the use and production of chlordane and mirex before 2009 and to elimate the use of DDT as the additive of antifouling paint and as an intermediary in the production of dicofol between 2008 and 2014. (Press release Embassy of the People s Republic of China in the United States, June 22,2006.)... 

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