Mammals toxaphene

A number of other chemicals suspected of having endocrine disrupting potential also occur at high levels in the tissues of marine mammals. For example, tribiityltin compounds are present in the tissues of the Steller sea lion (Eumetopias juhatus) from Hokaido, Japan, and in stranded bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) found along the US Atlantic and Gulf coasts.Additional chemicals detected include PAHs, toxaphene and chlordane. ... 

Acute oral toxicity of toxaphene to birds and mammals... 

Toxaphene accumulates in tissues of many aquatic species, especially in lipid-rich tissues of polar fish and marine mammals (Swackhamer and McConnell 1993). Toxaphene concentrations in livers of Arctic fishes of 2.9 mg/kg FW and in Canadian cod liver oil of 28 mg/kg FW are recorded... 

Table 27.4 Acute Oral Toxicity of Toxaphene to Birds and Mammals...

Table 27.7 Sublethal Effects of Toxaphene on Selected Mammals...

Toxaphene (CioHio(- 18) is a mixture of polychlorinated camphenes (bicyclic terpenes). Currently in restricted use as an insecticide, it is toxic to fish, birds and wildlife and may be fatal to shrimp, and crab, etc. (ref. 103, p. 26). Its toxicity and routes of entry in mammals are typical of the cyclic chlorinated hydrocarbons as a class ... 

Levels of POPs in two local marine mammals, the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin (Sousa chinensis) and Unless porpoise (Neophocaena phocaenoides), were measured in two ad hoc studies of stranded cetaceans in 1995-2000 and 2000-2001, respectively (Jefferson et al., 2002 Imanishi et al., 2004). Cetacean tissue samples were collected from stranded animals found in Hong Kong and analyzed for DDT, mirex, toxaphene and PCBs. High mean blubber concentrations of DDT (32.8 mg kg-1 ww) and PCBs (8.19 mg kg-1 ww) were reported. 

Chlordane was introduced as an insecticide in 1945 and was the first cyclodiene insecticide that was used in agriculture (Eisler, 1990). It was the second most important organochlorine pesticide after toxaphene from 1976 to 1977 (Stansley Roscoe, 1999). It has been used on agricultural crops and extensively in the control of termites (Smith, 1991). Chlordane and heptachlor can be metabolized into two persistent (oxygenated) epoxides—oxychlordane and heptachlor epoxide—in mammals (Nomeir Hajjar, 1987) such that the two compounds are always measured together with chlordane and heptachlor. 

The many compounds found in formulations of toxaphene vary widely in their toxicides. One of the most toxic is 8-octachlorobomane, shown above. Toxaphene produces convulsions of an epileptic type in exposed mammals. 

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