Endosulfan in water

Herzel F, Luedemann D. 1971. [Behavior and toxicity of endosulfan in water under various test conditions.] Z Angew Zool 58 57-61. (German)... 

Penuela GA, Barcelo D. 1998. Application of C18 disks followed by gas chromatography techniques to degradation kinetics, stability and monitoring of endosulfan in water. J Chromatogr 795 93-104. 

Lopez-Bianco, M.C., S. Blanco-Cid, B. Cancho-Grande, and J. Simal-Gandara. 2003. Application of single-drop microextraction and comparison with solid-phase microextraction and solid-phase extraction for the determination of a- and [1-endosulfan in water samples by gas chromatography-electron-capture detection. J. Chromatogr. A 984 245-252. 

Lee, N.J.,Skerrit, J.H.,Mcadam, D.R (1995) Hapten synthesis and development of ELI-SAs for detection of endosulfan in water and soil, Journal of Agricultural Food Chemistry, 43, 1730-1739... 

N. Lee, J.H. Skerritt, D.P. McAdam, Hapten Synthesis and Development of ELISAs for Detection of Endosulfan in Water and Soil , J. Agric. Food Chem., 43, 1730 (1995). 

Figure 13.19 Chromatograms obtained by on-line SPE-GC-MS(SIM) of (a) 10 ml of tap water spiked with pesticides at levels of 0.1 ng 1 (b) 10 ml of a sample of unspiked tap water. Peak identification foi (a) is as follows 1, molinate 2, a-HCH 3, dimethoate 4, simazine 5, ati azine 6, y-HCH 7, S-HCH 8, heptachloi 9, ametiyn 10, prometiyn 11, fen-itrothion 12, aldrin 13, malatliion 14, endo-heptachlor 15, a-endosulfan 16, teti achlor-vinphos 17, dieldrin. Reprinted from Journal of Chromatography, A 818, E. Pocumll et al., On-line coupling of solid-phase exti action to gas cliromatography with mass specti ometiic detection to determine pesticides in water , pp. 85-93, copyright 1998, with permission from Elsevier Science.

Endosulfan enters air, water, and soil when it is manufactured or used as a pesticide. Endosulfan is often applied to crops using sprayers. Some endosulfan in the air may travel long distances before it lands on crops, soil, or water. Endosulfan on crops usually breaks down within a few weeks. Endosulfan released to soil attaches to soil particles. Endosulfan found near hazardous waste sites is usually found in soil. Some endosulfan in soil evaporates into air, and some endosulfan in soil breaks down. However, it may stay in soil for several years before it all breaks down. Rainwater can wash endosulfan that is attached to soil particles into surface water. Endosulfan does not dissolve easily in water. Most endosulfan in surface water is attached to soil particles floating in the water or attached to soil at the bottom. The small amounts of endosulfan that dissolve in water break down over time. Depending on the conditions in the water, endosulfan may break down within 1 day or it may take several months. Some endosulfan in surface water evaporates into air and breaks down. Because it does not dissolve easily in water, only very small amounts of endosulfan are found in groundwater (water below the soil surface for example, well water). Animals that live in endosulfan-contaminated waters can build up endosulfan in their bodies. The amount of endosulfan in their bodies may be several times greater than in the surrounding water. More information on the chemical and physical properties of endosulfan can be found in Chapter 3. More information on its occurrence and fate in the environment can be found in Chapter 5. 

Endosulfan is usually not found in the air, and it is not found in soil and water very often. When endosulfan is found in soil and water, levels of less than 1 part of endosulfan in 1 billion parts of surface water (ppb) and less than 1 part of endosulfan in 1 milhon parts of soil (ppm) have been reported. For more information on human exposure to endosulfan, see Chapter 5. 

The federal government has set standards and guidelines to protect people from the possible adverse health effects of endosulfan in drinking water and food. EPA recommends that the amount of endosulfan in lakes, rivers, and streams should not be more than 74 micrograms per liter (pg/L) or 74 parts per billion (74 ppb). This should prevent any harmful health effects from occurring in people who drink the water or eat fish or seafood that live in the water. FDA allows no more than 24 parts per million (24 ppm) of endosulfan on dried tea, and EPA allows no more than 0.1 to 2 ppm endosulfan on other raw agricultural products. 

Overview. Humans living in areas surrounding hazardous waste sites may be exposed to endosulfan primarily via dermal contact with or ingestion of contaminated soils since this compound is found bound to soil particles. Although endosulfan can be found in water as colloidal suspensions adsorbed to particles, ingestion of contaminated finished drinking water is not expected to be a major route of exposure since endosulfan is not very water soluble. Likewise, inhalation exposure to endosulfan via volatilization from contaminated media is not a major route of exposure since endosulfan is not very... 

Adsorption is also important in aquatic systems. For example, 82-85% of the endosulfan residues in water samples taken from the Rhine River (0.2-0.6 ppb) were associated with the particulate phase (Greve and Wit 1971). 

Endosulfan does not bioaccumulate to high concentrations in terrestrial or aquatic ecosystems. In aquatic ecosystems, residue levels in fish generally peak within 7 days to 2 weeks of continuous exposure to endosulfan. Maximum bioconcentration factors (BCFs) are usually less than 3,000, and residues are eliminated within 2 weeks of transfer to clean water (NRCC 1975). A maximum BCE of 600 was reported for a-endosulfan in mussel tissue (Ernst 1977). In a similar study, endosulfan, isomers not specified, had a measured BCE of 22.5 in mussel tissue (Roberts 1972). Tissue concentrations of a-endosulfan fell rapidly upon transfer of the organisms to fresh seawater for example, a depuration half-life of 34 hours (Ernst 1977). Higher BCFs were reported for whole-body and edible tissues of striped mullet (maximum BCF=2,755) after 28 days of exposure to endosulfan in seawater (Schimmel et al. 1977). However, tissue concentrations decreased to undetectable levels 48 hours after the organisms were transferred to uncontaminated seawater. Similarly, a BCE of 2,650 was obtained for zebra fish exposed to 0.3 pg/L of endosulfan for 21 days in a flow-through aquarium (Toledo and Jonsson 1992). It was noted that endosulfan depuration by fish was rapid, with approximately 81% total endosulfan eliminated within 120 hours when the fish were placed in a tank of water containing no endosulfan. 

Endosulfan undergoes hydrolysis to endosulfan diol in surface water and groundwater. The rate of hydrolysis is influenced by pH. Half-life values reported in the literature vary somewhat. The chemical degradation of a- and P-endosulfan was studied under both anaerobic and aerobic environments. Under aerobic conditions, both hydrolysis and oxidation of endosulfan can occur, while under anaerobic conditions, only hydrolysis can occur. The hydrolytic half-lives for a- and P-endosulfan under anaerobic conditions at pH 7 were 35 and 37 days, respectively (Greve and Wit 1971). At pH 5.5 the half-lives were 151 and 187 days, respectively. Under aerobic conditions, the half-lives decreased. At pH 7, the half-lives of the chemical degradation (hydrolysis and oxidation) of both a- and P-endosulfan were 23 and 25 days, respectively, while at pH 5, the half-lives were 54 and 51 days, respectively. At T=20 and pHs of 5.5 and 8.0, the half-lives of a-endosulfan in distilled water were 11.3 and 5.3 days. 

Runoff waters from agricultural areas have been found to contain low concentrations of endosulfan in the aqueous phase and higher concentrations in the particulate phase of the runoff. Eor example, runoff from... 

Solid phase micro extraction (SPME) is a techniques in which a silica fiber coated with a thin film of polymer is brought into contact with an aqueous matrix where the organics in solution partition onto the fiber. The fiber is subsequently placed into the injector of a GC where the heat causes the release of analyte onto the column. This has been applied to endosulfan (a- and (3-) and endosulfan sulfate in water with limits of detection of less than 0.3 pg/L reported (Magdic and Pawliszyn 1996). 

GC/ECD or a halogen-specific detector (HSD) (Method 8080) is the technique recommended by EPA s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response for determining a- and [3-endosulfan and endosulfan sulfate in water and waste water at low-ppb levels (EPA 1986a). At these low concentrations, identification of endosulfan residues can be hampered by the presence of a variety of other pesticides. Consequently, sample clean-up on a Florisil column is usually required prior to analysis (EPA 1986a). 

An enzyme immunoassay technique has been employed for measuring endosulfan and its degradation products (i.e., endosulfan diol, endosulfan sulfate, endosulfan ether, and endosulfan lactone) in water at 3 ppb (Chau and Terry 1972 Musial et al. 1976). However, this technique is not currently in use in environmental residue analysis. Further research into this technique could produce a rapid, rehable, and sensitive method for identifying contaminated areas posing a risk to human health. No additional methods for detecting endosulfan in environmental media appear to be necessary at this time. However, methods for the determination of endosulfan degradation products are needed. 

Greve PA, Wit SL. 1971. Endosulfan in the Rhine River. J Water Pollut Control Fed 43 2338-2348. 

Kaur I, Mathur RP, Tandon SN, et al. 1998. Persistence of endosulfan (technical) in water and soil. Environmental Technology 19(1) 115-119. 

Zoun PEE, Spierenburg TJ, Baars AJ. 1987. Gas chromatographic determination of endosulfan in fish and water samples. J Chromatogr 393 133-136. 

Struger J (1998) Organophosphorous insecticides and endosulfan in surface waters of the Niagara fruit belt, Ontario, Canada. Presented at the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry meeting, Charlotte, North Carolina... 

Leonard AW, Hyne RV, Lim RP, Leigh KA, Le J, Beckett R. 2001. Fate and toxicity of endosulfan in Namoi River water and bottom sediment. J Environ Qual 30 750-759. 

D.E. Robinson, A. Mansingh, T.P. Dasgupta, Fate of Endosulfan in Soil and in River and Coastal Waters of Jamaica, in Proceedings of a Symposium Environmental Behavior of Crop Protection Chemicals, IAEA-SM-343/28, Vienna, Austria, 1997, pp. 301-311. 

---