Endrin and dieldrin

The gas chromatographic procedure described by Woodham et al. [8] and discussed in section 9.1.1.1 for the determination of Aldrin, Endrin and Dieldrin in soils has also been applied to sediments. 

Cole JF, Klevay LM, Zavon MR. 1970. Endrin and dieldrin a comparison of hepatic excretion in the rat. Toxicol and Applied Pharmacology 16 547-555. 

Good EE, Ware GW. 1969. Effects of insecticides on reproduction in the laboratory mouse IV. Endrin and dieldrin. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol 14 201-203. 

Hayes JR, Hartgrove RW, Hundley SG, et al. 1975. Interaction of endrin and dieldrin with hepatic microsomal cytochrome 450 from the rat, mouse, and endrin-susceptible and resistant pine voles. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol 32 559-565. 

Wolfe HR, Durham WF, Armstrong JF. 1963. Health hazards of the pesticides endrin and dieldrin Hazards in some agricultural uses in the Pacific Northwest. Arch Environ Health 6 458-464. 

Irrespective of the acidic reagent employed, if a DC-200 or mixed DC-ll/QF-1 column is used in the final GC analysis, incomplete resolution of the endrin and dieldrin derivative peaks is observed (36, 38). This overlap problem has been overcome by using either 15% QF-1 and 10% DC-200 as stationary phase for on-column resolution or an acetylation procedure to give easily GC resolvable derivatives when endrin and dieldrin residues occur together. In the former case, this particular column was used to separate endrin ketone and the aldrin chlorohydrin in the latter case an acetic anhydride-sulfuric acid reagent (36, 39) produced the expected endrin ketone and a dieldrin diacetate derivative having significantly different Rt values. 

An alternative confirmatory test for endrin in the presence of dieldrin has been achieved by preferential reductive dechlorination. Although both endrin and dieldrin react with CrCb, endrin is substantially more labile (Figure 4) to this particular reagent to give a pentachloroketone which has a different retention time from the more common organochlorine pesticides (40). 

Cyclodienes are chlorinated hydrocarbon insecticides with a polycyclic structure and, as the name implies, two unsaturated bonds. Not all of the insecticides in this class meet these criteria. Chlordane, for example, contains only one double bond in its polycyclic structure. Endrin and dieldrin are epoxides of the cyclodienes isodrin and aldrin, respectively. 

Chlorinated Hydrocarbons. Properties of some chlorinated hydrocarbon insecticides are given in Table VI. All of the compounds, except for lindane, are insoluble in water. DDT is about ten times more insoluble than the other chlorinated hydrocarbons. The vapor pressure of the compounds are classified as follows low(0.1 -0.9 X 10 mm Hg)—DDT, endrin, and dieldrin, moderate (1.0-9.9 X 10 mm Hg)— toxaphene and aldrin, high (10-99 X 10 mm Hg)—chlordan and lindane, and very high (100-999 X 10" mm Hg)— heptachlor. 

Endrin and dieldrin have slightly higher vapor pressures than DDT and were, therefore, slowly volatilized from aqueous solutions (292), soils (282, 292, 294), mud (275, 276), and other surfaces (268, 280, 295, 296). The vaporizing rate of the two compounds was much lower than that of aldrin which has a vapor pressure more than 30 times greater than the others (Table VI). The higher volatility of aldrin was also responsible for its much higher fumigant action than dieldrin or endrin (275, 280, 293, 296). 

Adsorbing and volatizing of aldrin, endrin, and dieldrin from soil surfaces were greatly influenced by temperature showing that weak physical intermolecular forces were operating in both processes (282). 

Fig. 181. Thin-layer chromatogram of chlorinated pesticides [67]. Detection of pesticide residues in milk. Layer alumina G solvent n-heptane (according to [51]). A and E 0.2 jxg endrin and aldrin B and F aldrin, heptachlor, DDT, lindane and heptachlor epoxide 0 2 g milk with added aldrin, heptachlor, lindane, heptachlor epoxide (all 0.1 ppm) and DDT (0.6 ppm) D 2 g milk with added eni-in and dieldrin (0.1 ppm) G 5 g milk with added aldrin, heptachlor, lindane, heptachlor epoxide (all 0.04 ppm) and DDT (0.2 ppm) H 5 g milk with added endrin and dieldrin (0.04ppm) J 50 g milk with spot of heptachlor epoxide I milk blank...

The reagent sequence is specific for endosulfan and phosphamidon. Other insecticides, e.g. organochlorine insecticides, such as endrin, aldrin, dieldrin, DDT and BHC, organophosphorus insecticides, such as malathion, parathion, dimethoate, quinalphos, phorate and fenitrothion, or carbamate insecticides, such as baygon, car-baryl and carbofuran do not react. Neither is there interference from amino acids, peptides or proteins which might be extracted from the biological material together with the pesticides. 

Musial CJ, Peach ME, Stiles DA. 1976. A simple procedure for the confirmation of residues of alpha-and beta-endosulfan, dieldrin, endrin, and heptachlor epoxide. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 16 98-100. 

Jaeger, K., (1970). Aldrin, Dieldrin, Endrin and Telodrin. Amsterdam Elsevier. 

As Muller had prophesied and indeed hoped, DDT stimulated the discovery of more synthetic insecticides. DDT relatives included chlordane, toxaphene, aldrin, dieldrin, endrin, and heptachlor. Popular substitutes for DDT s family included organophosphates such as parathion, which is a powerful neurotoxin, and carbamates, which are also highly toxic to people. Unlike DDT, parathion and aldicarb have killed and injured many farm workers. Malathion was later developed to be several hundred times less toxic than parathion. 

Endrin was introduced in the United States in 1951 as an avicide, rodenticide and insecticide. Its principal use to control the cotton bollworm and tobacco budworm peaked in the early 1970s. In 1979, the EPA canceled some uses of endrin and indicated its intent to cancel all uses of endrin (EPA 1979f USDA 1995). By 1986, all uses were voluntarily canceled (Bishop 1984, 1985, 1986 EPA 1993e USDA 1995), except for its use as a toxicant on bird perches, which was canceled in 1991 (USDA 1995). Endrin also was a contaminant in dieldrin (Verschueren 1983) however, all uses of this pesticide have been canceled since the mid-1980s (EPA 1992b). Consequently, there are no longer any significant releases of endrin to the environment in the United States. 

Versteeg JP, Jager KW. 1973. Long-term occupational exposure to the insecticides aldrin, dieldrin, endrin, and telodrin. Br J Ind Med 30 201-202. 

Rosen, J.D., Sutherland, J., and Lipton, G.R. The photochemical isomerization of dieldrin and endrin and effects on toxicity. Bull. Environ. Contam. Toxicol, 1(4) 133-140, 1966. 

In contrast to animal studies, epidemiological studies of workers employed in the manufacture of aldrin provide no conclusive evidence of carcinogenicity in humans. " One study of a cohort having mixed exposure to aldrin, dieldrin, and endrin found 9 deaths from cancer versus 12 expected. The workers had been exposed to the pesticides for a mean of 11 years and followed a mean of 24 years. A more recent examination of 2384 manufacturing workers, employed between 1952 and 1982, with exposure to a number of pesticides including aldrin found no excess mortality rates attributable to occupational exposures. Similarly, a 2 3-year follow-up of 570 aldrin- and dieldrin-exposed workers found no increase in overall mortality rates or mortality from liver cancer."... 

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