Heptachlor environment

In 1974, the Harmonized Monitoring Programme was set up by the Department of the Environment (DoE). The objective was to provide a network of sites at the lower end of catchments, where water quality data could be collected and analysed in a nationally consistent manner, allowing the loads of materials carried through river catchments into estuaries to be estimated and long-term trends in river quality to be assessed. The complete list of substances to be monitored is diverse and specifies about 115 substances. The pesticides aldrin, dieldrin, y-HCH, heptachlor, p,p -DDT and p,p -DDE are included. Figures 1 and 2 show the downward trend of y-HCH and dieldrin over the past 20 years at the Harmonized Monitoring Sites. This confirms that reductions in environmental concentrations have been achieved, particularly over the past 10 years. 

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. 

Pesticides, and especially OCPs (DDT and its metabolytes, HCH isomers, aldrine, dieldrin, heptachlor, etc.), are seen everywhere in mammals. Table 4.7 gives data on the death of higher vertebrates from causes linked to agricultural production in the USSR. About 40% of the accidental deaths of animals, and about 80% of birds, are due to pesticides. It is difficult to evaluate how many mammals in the environment die from pesticide contamination, since sick and weakened individuals fall prey to predators [6]. 

Although technical chlordane is a mixture of compounds, two metabolites — heptachlor epoxide and oxychlordane — can kill birds when administered through the diet (Blus et al. 1983). These two metabolites originate from biological and physical breakdown of chlordanes in the environment, or from metabolism after ingestion. Heptachlor can result from breakdown of cis- and trans-chlordane, eventually oxidizing to heptachlor epoxide oxychlordane can result from the breakdown of heptachlor, m-chlordane, tra .s-chlordane, or fram-nonachlor (Blus et al. 1983). Heptachlor epoxide has been identified in soil, crops, and aquatic biota, but its presence is usually associated with the use of heptachlor, not technical chlordane — which also contains some heptachlor (NRCC 1975). Various components in technical chlordane may inhibit the formation of heptachlor epoxide or accelerate the decomposition of the epoxide, but the actual mechanisms are unclear (NRCC 1975). 

Chlordane-induced mortality of the long-billed curlew (Numenius americanus) has been documented at least four times since 1978, despite restriction of technical chlordane use since 1980 to subterranean applications for termite control (Blus et al. 1985). Death of these curlews was probably due to over-winter accumulations of oxychlordane of 1.5 to 5.0 mg/kg brain FW and of heptachlor epoxide at 3.4 to 8.3 mg/kg — joint lethal ranges for oxychlordane and heptachlor epoxide in experimental birds — compared to 6 mg/kg brain for oxychlordane alone and 9 mg/kg for heptachlor epoxide alone (Blus et al. 1985). Additional research is needed on toxic interactions of chlordane components with each other and with other chemicals in the same environment. 

Epstein, S.S. 1976. Carcinogenicity of heptachlor and chlordane. Sci. Total Environ. 6 103-154. 

Magnani, B., C.D. Powers, C.F. Wurster, and H.B. O Connors, Jr. 1978. Effects of chlordane and heptachlor on the marine dinoflagellate, Exuviella baltica Lohmann. Bull. Environ. Contam. Toxicol. 20 1-8. 

Podowski, A.A., B.C. Baneijee, M. Feroz, M.A. Dudek, R.L. Willey, and M.A.Q. Khan. 1979. Photolysis of heptachlor and civ-chlordanc and toxicity of their photoisomers to animals. Arch. Environ. Contam. Toxicol. 8 509-518. 

Stanker LH, Watkins B, Vanderlaan M, et al. 1989. Analysis of heptachlor and related cyclodiene insecticides in food products. In Vanderlaan M, ed. ACS (American Chemical Society) Symposium Series, 451. Immunoassays for trace chemical analysis Monitoring toxic chemicals in humans, food and the environment Meeting, Honolulu, Hawaii, December 17-22. Washington, DC American Chemical Society, 108-123. 

WHAT HAPPENS TO HEPTACHLOR AND HEPTACHLOR EPOXIDE WHEN THEY ENTER THE ENVIRONMENT ... 

Releases to the Environment tfom Facilities That Manufacture or Process Heptachlor ... 

Heptachlor epoxide is a breakdown product of heptachlor. It was not manufactured and was not used as an insecticide like heptachlor. Like pure heptachlor, heptachlor epoxide is a white powder that does not explode easily. Heptachlor epoxide is made by bacteria in the environment. Animals and people also make heptachlor epoxide when heptachlor enters their bodies. This profile describes these two chemicals together because about 20% of heptachlor is changed within hours into heptachlor epoxide in the environment and in your body. 

Most of the breakdown products of heptachlor are thought to be less harmful than heptachlor itself. However, in laboratory animals, heptachlor epoxide is more harmful than heptachlor. For more information on heptachlor and heptachlor epoxide in the environment, see Chapters 4 and 5. 

A few days after exposure, blood levels of heptachlor and heptachlor epoxide decrease and can no longer be measured. Therefore, blood tests for these chemicals must be done within a short period after exposure. Levels in fat can be measured for a much longer period after exposure. If heptachlor or heptachlor epoxide is found in your fat, it is not possible to tell when you were exposed to these chemicals or if harmful health effects will occur. See Chapters 2 and 6 for more information on detecting these chemicals in the environment or in human tissues. 

ERA has named heptachlor as a hazardous solid waste material. If quantities of heptachlor or heptachlor epoxide of greater than 1 pound enter the environment, the National Response Center of the federal government must be told immediately. 

More data on the correlation of tissue levels to exposure parameters would be useful for increasing the power of epidemiological studies to measure statistically significant associations between heptachlor exposure and health effects in cohorts from both occupational or contaminated community environments. 

Heptachlor is converted to heptachlor epoxide and other degradation products in the environment. Heptachlor epoxide degrades more slowly and, as a result, is more persistent than heptachlor. 

Arnold DW, Kennedy GL Jr, Keplinger ML, et al. 1977. Dominant lethal studies with technical chlordane, HCS-3260, and heptachlor heptachlor epoxide. J Toxicol Environ Health 2 547-555. 

Aulerich RJ, Bursian GJ, Napolitano AC. 1990. Subacute toxicity of dietary heptachlor to mink ( Mustela vison). Arch Environ Contam Toxicol 19(6) 913-916. 

Fendick EA, Mather-Mihaich E, Houck KA, et al. 1990. Ecological toxicology and human health effects of heptachlor. Rev Environ Contam Toxicol 111 61-142. 

Kacew S, Sutherland DJB, Singhal RL. 1973. Biochemical changes following chronic administration of heptachlor, heptachlor epoxide and endrin to male rats. Environ Physiol Biochem 3 221-229. 

Krampl V. 1971. Relationship between serum enzymes and histological changes in liver after administration of heptachlor in the rat. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 5 529-536. 

Le Marchand L, Kolonel LN, Siegel BZ, et al. 1986. Trends in birth defects for a Hawaiian population exposed to heptachlor and for the United States. Arch Environ Health 41 (3) 145-148. 

MacMonegle CW Jr, Steffey KL, Bruce WN. 1984. Dieldrin, heptachlor, and chlordane residues in soybeans in Illinois 1974, 1980. J Environ Sci Health B19 39-48. 

Reuber MD. 1987. Carcinogenicity of heptachlor and heptachlor epoxide. J Environ Pathol Toxicol Oncol 7 85-114. 

Sperling F, Ewenike HKU, FarberT. 1972. Changes in LDso of parathion and heptachlor following turpentine pretreatment. Environ Res 5 164-171. 

Wright CG, Leidy RB. 1982. Chlordane and heptachlor in the ambient air of houses treated for termites. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 28 617-623. 

Soil The actinomycete Nocardiopsis sp. isolated from soil extensively degraded pure cis- and /ra/3s-chlordane to dichlorochlordene, oxychlordane, heptachlor, heptachlor e/ c/o-epoxide, chlordene chlorohydrin, and 3-hydroxy-traas-chlordane. Oxychlordane slowly degraded to 1-hydroxy-2-chlorochlordene (Beeman and Matsumura, 1981). In Hudson River, NY sediments, the presence of adsorbed chlordane suggests it is very persistent in this environment (Bopp et al., 1982). The reported half-life in soil is approximately 1 yr (Hartley and Kidd, 1987). 

Crum, J. A., Bursian, S.J., Aulerich, R.J., Polin, D., and Braselton, W.E. The reproductive effects of dietary heptachlor in mink (Mustela vison), Arch. Environ. Contam. Toxicol., 24(2) 156-164, 1993. 

Dennis, W.H., Jr. and Cooper, W.J. Catal3rtic dechlorination of organochlorine compounds. II. Heptachlor and chlordane. Bull. Environ. Contam. Toxicol, 16(4) 425-430, 1976. 

Ivie, G.W., Knox, J.R., Khalifa, S., Yamamoto, I., and Casida, J.E. Novel photoproducts of heptachlor epoxide, trans-chlordane, and trans-nomddot. Bull Environ. Contam. Toxicol, 7(6) 376-383, 1972. 

Schimmel, S.C., Patrick, J.M., Jr., and Forester, J. Heptachlor uptake, depuration, retention, and metabolism by spot Leiostomusxanthurus), J. Toxicol. Environ. Health, 2(1) 169-178, 1976a. 

---