Hydrocarbons persistent chlorinated

Landrigan PJ Mount Sinai School of Medicine of CUNY, New York, NY Lead and organochlorines in New York City study the current urban sources, environmental distribution and toxic effects on human health of lead and persistent chlorinated hydrocarbons—in particular PCBs and DDT National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences... 

Norheim, G. and B. Kjos-Hanssen. 1934. Persistent chlorinated hydrocarbons and mercury in birds caught off the west coast of Spitsbergen. Environ. Pollut. 33A 143-152. 

Norheim, G., L. Some, and G. Holt. 1982. Mercury and persistent chlorinated hydrocarbons in Antarctic birds from Bouvetoya and Dronning Maud Land. Environ. Pollut. 28A 233-240. 

Analysis of PDP data from 1994 to 1999 showed that 73% of approximately 27,000 food samples that had no market claim (conventional or organic) showed detectable residues, while 23% of 127 fresh food samples designated as organic had detectable residue levels (Baker et al., 2002). Unavoidable contamination of some of the organic samples was due to the presence of persistent chlorinated hydrocarbon insecticides, which had been banned several years earlier, but 13% of the organic samples showed residues of pesticides other than the chlorinated hydrocarbon insecticides. 

Why do chlorinated hydrocarbons persist longer in the environment than do organophosphorus compounds ... 

Sarkar (1994), in a chapter on the occurrence and distribution of persistent chlorinated hydrocarbons in the seas around India, stated that isomers of HCH, aldrin, dieldrin and PCBs occur in water of different regions of the Indian Ocean and surrounding seas with remarkable variations in the levels of DDT between the coastal and open ocean waters. PCBS were found to be relatively in higher amounts in the surface waters of southwest Indian Ocean than the eastern Indian Ocean which he has attributed to the larger input of these chemicals from the African coast. 

Sarkar, A., 1994. Occurrence and distribution of persistent chlorinated hydrocarbons in the seas around India. In Majumdar, S.M., Miller, E.W., Forbes, G.S., Schmalz, R.F., Panah, A S. (Eds ), The Oceans Physical-Chemical Dynamics and Human Impact. The Pennsylvania Academy of Sciences, Pennsylvania, USA, pp. 444 158. 

Picer, N., Picer, M., 1992. Inflow, levels and the fate of some persistent chlorinated hydrocarbons in the Rijeka Bay area of the Adriatic Sea. Water Res. 26, 899-909. 

Zeng, E.Y., D. Tsukada, and D.W. Diehl. 2004. Development of solid-phase microextraction-based method for sampling of persistent chlorinated hydrocarbons in an urbanized coastal environment. Environ. Sci. Technol. 38 5737-5743. 

Marth, in his summary of the literature (35), states that most of the chlorinated hydrocarbons persist in the soil from several to many years. Temperature, moisture, type of soil, amount, and volatility of the compound influence the duration. Soil microflura are not appreciably altered, but fauna are modified as to kind and number. 

Widespread substantial contamination of the environment has arisen primarily from the massive use of the persistent chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticides. The extent and significance of this contamination is only partly known. Our limited knowledge is most apparent in two areas. First, there is no organized environmental monitoring and human surveillance system to provide comprehensive and representative data about the locations, amounts, and trends of this contamination second, we are technically unprepared to predict the significant long term effects of this contamination on animal and human life. 

Bopp, Richard Mount Sinai School of Medicine New York, New York Sources and pathways of persistent chlorinated hydrocarbon exposure in New York City NIEHS... 

Seiler P, Fischer B, Lindenau A, et al. 1994. Effects of persistent chlorinated hydrocarbons on fertility and embryonic development in the rabbit. Human Reprod 9 1920-1926. 

Heinisch, E., Kettrup, A., Bergheim, W., Martens, D., Wenzel, S., Persistent Chlorinated Hydrocarbons (PCHC), Source Oriented Monitoring in Aquatic Media 3. The Isomers of Hexachlorocyclohexane, Fresenius Environ. Bull. 2005, 14, 444 462. 

Hale, R.C. and J. Greaves. 1992. Methods for the analysis of persistent chlorinated hydrocarbons in tissues. J. Chromatogr. 580 257-278. 

The highly persistent chlorinated hydrocarbons may also slowly disappear from soil through evaporation. Spencer and Cliath (1972) found that the vapor densities of DDT and DDE were approximately 21 times greater at 7.5% moisture content in soil than at 2.2% moisture content. They also found that increased temperature raised the vapor pressure according to the Clapeyron-Clausius equation (log p = A - B/T, where A and B are constants). They measured the vapor densities of p,p-DDT on sand at 20, 30, and 40°C and found them to be 2.9, 13.6, and 60.2 ng/1. Furthermore, Spencer and Cliath found that DDE and other derivatives of DDT have a higher vapor density than DDT (Table 8.4). DDT therefore probably disappears from soil by first being converted to DDE by microorganisms and soil animals, which then slowly disappear by evaporation. 

The perspective that "The persistent chlorinated hydrocarbons appear to be uniquely well adapted for soil use" (3) rather quickly collided with the reality of insect microevolution. The first evidence of rootworm control failures occurred in Nebraska in 1959, and by 1962 resistance of rootworms to the cyclodienes had been conclusively documented (4). The spread of this resistance during the 1960 s, along with environmental scrutiny of the ecological impacts of these persistent compounds, created a demand for more environmentally sound insecticides. 

Chlorinated Hydrocarbons Short-chain alkyl halides find extensive use as solvents and are common contaminants of ground water. Polychlorinated biphenyls are global contaminants as a consequence of their extensive use and persistence. Chlorinated dioxins and furans are produced as combustion by products or contaminants in reactions with chlorophenols. Consequently, there has been considerable interest in defining the physical chemical properties that determine their environmental behavior. 

Cyclic hydrocarbons with chlorine substituents that block ring oxidation are resistant to biodegradation and thus accumulate in the environment and persist for long periods in animals once they are absorbed. The persistence of organochlorine pesticides... 

Wiese IH, Basson NCJ. 1966. The degradation of some persistent chlorinated hydrocarbon insecticides applied to different soil types. South African Journal of Agricultural Science 9 945-969. 

This chapter is divided into seven main sections. The first of these sections is focused on technological contaminants, namely heterocyclic amines, acrylamide, furan, chloropropanok and their fatty acid esters, polycycKc aromatic hydrocarbons, monocyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, nitroso compounds, and ethyl carbamate. Other sections deal with microbial toxins (mycotoxins and bacterial toxins), persistent organohalogen contaminants (such as polychlorinated biphenyls, dibenzodioxins and dibenzofurans), chlorinated ahphatic hydrocarbons, pesticides (persistent chlorinated hydrocarbons and modem pesticides), veterinary medicines and contaminants from packaging materials. Presented for each of these contaminants are structures, properties, occurrence and the main sources of dietary intake, mechanisms of formation, possibilities of food contamination, prevention and mitigation and health and toxicological evaluations. 

Reductive DechIorina.tion. Such reduction of chlorinated aUphatic hydrocarbons, eg, lindane, has been known since the 1960s. More recentiy, the dechlorination of aromatic pesticides, eg, 2,4,5-T, or pesticide products, eg, chlorophenols, has also been documented (eq. 10) (20). These reactions are of particular interest because chlorinated compounds are generally persistent under aerobic conditions. 

The methods, which allow in one procedure of analysis to overcome, for example, most pesticides which are used in agricultural practice in the present time, get development and introduction in practice. The contribution of the Ukrainian scientists in field of chromatographic analysis of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs, chlorinated hydrocarbons, PCB s) and supertoxicants, such as PCDDs, is estimated. 

Varanasi, U., Stein, J.E., and Reichert, W.L. et al. (1992). Chlorinated and aromatic hydrocarbons in bottom sediments, fish and marine mammals in US coastal waters laboratory and field studies of metabolism and accumulation. In C.H. Walker and D.R. Livingstone (Eds.) Persistent Pollutants in Marine Ecosystems, Oxford, U.K. Pergamon Press, 83-118. 

Geigy s mothproofing agent was a stomach poison for moths and other keratin-eating insects. It had a strong affinity for woolens, was harmless to warm-blooded animals and people, and had no offensive odor. As a chlorinated hydrocarbon, it was extremely persistent despite exposure to light and moisture. 

Making a list, Muller outlined the desirable characteristics of an ideal insecticide. It should be toxic to insects but harmless to mammals, fish, and plants act rapidly have no irritating odor and be inexpensive. To his list, Muller added two more properties. The ideal insecticide should affect as many kinds of insects as possible, and it should be chemically stable for a long time. Finally, Muller decided to use as a starting point Geigy s mothproofing compound, the chlorinated hydrocarbon that was extremely stable on woolens. Thus, from the beginning, Muller s search contained the seeds of its own disaster. In the future, it would kill beneficial as well as harmful insects, and it would persist for decades in the environment. 

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