Organo-chlorine pesticides

Residual heavy metals and organo-chlorine pesticides represent two well-known pollution problems. Sensitive and accurate analysis is required to enable the distribution and level of a pollutant in the environment to be assessed and routine chemical analysis is important in the control of industrial effluents. 

Furst P et al Human milk as a bioindicator for body burden of PCDDs, PCDFs, organo-chlorine pesticides, and PCBs. Environ Health Perspect 102 187, 1994... 

Soils may also become contaminated with industrial pollutants or with agricultural chemicals. For example, fields located close to industrial plants such as incinerators or metal smelters can gradually accumulate residues of combustion products and other chemicals from the fall-out from smoke plumes. Organo-chlorine pesticides, which are now largely banned, can persist in soils for many years and nitrates used in fertilisers can accumulate in soils which, under certain growth conditions, can result in high levels in certain crops. 

Herrera, A., Arino, A., Conchello, P., Lazaro, R., Bayarri, S., Perez-Arquillue, C., Garrido, M., Jodral, M., Pozo, R., 1996. Estimates of mean daily intakes of persistent organo-chlorine pesticides from Spanish fatty foodstuffs. Bull. Environ. Contam. Toxicol. 56, 173-177. 

Although there are many peer-reviewed publications about organo-chlorine pesticides, PCBs and PCDDs/PCDFs, on or in water, sediments and mussels, information about these compounds on or in waterbirds in China is limited. In the present review, most of the data that were presented from China were from limited peer-reviewed publications (Connell et al., 2003 De Luca-Abbott et al., 2001 Dong et al., 2004 Nakata et al., 2005 Wan et al., 2006). Furthermore, it should be noted that the concentrations of various POPs reported were measured in different tissues of separate species, and expressed in different units. Thus, caution should be taken when the information is used or interpreted. 

Generally, not much work was available in the published literature on the levels of persistent toxic substances in the waters along the coastal areas of India. Most of the data available are on the two classic organo-chlorine pesticides, DDT and HCH and some sporadic reports on PCBs, BTs, cyclodines and some other organophosphorus pesticides in the coastal environmental samples. Neverthless, some recent works showed... 

Burke, E.R., Holden, A.J., Shaw, I.C., Suharyanto, F.X., Sihombing, G., 2003. Organo-chlorine pesticide residues in human milk from primiparous women in Indonesia. Bull. Environ. Contam. Toxicol. 71, 148-155. 

A number of environmental contaminants (e.g., some organo-chlorine pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) cause cancer in laboratory animals. The committee found no epidemiological evidence to suggest that these compounds individually make a major contribution to the risk of cancer in humans. However, the possibility that they may act synergistically and may thereby create a greater carcinogenic risk cannot be excluded. 

Fernandes, V.C., Subramanian, V., Mateus, N., Domingues, V.F., Deleme-Matos, C. The development and optimization of a modified single-drop microextraction method for organo-chlorine pesticides determination by gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Microchim. Acta 178, 195-202 (2012)... 

The vapor pressure of PCB can vary within a wide range. The more volatile PCBs have a vapor pressure around 40-75 mbar, which is similar to the vapor pressure of some organo-chlorine pesticides. Our own lab deodorization trials showed that PCBs and dioxins can be stripped from fish oil without degradation of the 00-3 fatty acids (eicosapentaenoic acid, EPA, and docosahexaenoic acid, DHA) provided that the deodorization pressure is very low (>2 mbar) (Table 10). Other studies showed that deodorization at 230°C and 5 mbar was insufficient to remove a PCB heat-transfer agent from contaminated rice bran oil (28). 

As a group, carbamates have a relatively low environmental persistence, in contrast to the organo-chlorine pesticides. Carbamates are broken down by... 

Researchers were also able to establish the link between declines of other predatory species such as the European sparrowhawk and the use of organo-chlorine pesticides other than DDT. For instance, the cyclodiene insecticides aldrin, dieldrin, and he-ptachlor used as seed treatments caused massive mortality of both seed-eating species and their predators. All of the insecticides had the following points in common they were highly soluble in fats and refractory to metabolism. The impacts on the predatory species typically take place in periods of food stress when fat soluble residues are released from fat stores and returned into general circulation. In a food-stressed individual, the brain remains as the most lipid rich tissue and this is where contaminants move to. Toxicity results when threshold values in brain tissue are exceeded. At sublethal levels, documented effects of cyclodiene insecticides in birds have included changes in their reproductive, social, and avoidance behaviors. 

Chemical/Pharmaceutical/Other Class Organo-chlorine pesticides... 

Several organic solvents thought to be able to induce MCS, formaldehyde, benzene, carbon tetrachloride, and certain organo-chlorine pesticides all induce increases in nitric oxide levels. 

Carpenter, B.J. and B.E. Frost The transfer of organo-chlorine pesticide residues from tobacco to smoke 23rd Tobacco Chemists Research Conference, Program... 

Dickes, G.J., P.V. Nicholas, and R.J. Greenslade Organo-chlorine pesticide residues in tobacco products J. Assoc. Publ. Analysts 9 (1971) 108-111. 

The chemical structures of some organo-chlorine pesticides and their toxicity data as... 

Interlaboratory coefficients of variation of chlorobiphenyls and organo-chlorine pesticides in sediments are about 40%, those in cod liver oil, about 26% [134]. 

The consistent lack of genotoxicity of organo-chlorine pesticides in liver derived tests strongly supports the negative data obtained in other tests. Thus, it appears that these chemicals are not geno-toxic carcinogens. 

For practical reasons, classical procedures are continuously upgraded to get improvements in terms of reliability and performance. Such an approach relates, for example, to the conventional Soxhlet extraction assisted by focused microwaves (FMSE). The main factors affecting extraction efficiency are microwave power, irradiation time, volume of the extractant, and number of cycles. The result, in terms of extracted mass and repeatability is similar to the classical method. In addition, there is a significant reduction in the total time taken for the process and far less amount of extractant is consumed. Organo-chlorine pesticides (OCPs) and related residues have been successfully isolated from sunflower seeds by means of FMSE. Comparison with the ISO 659-1988... 

Adsorption chromatography (alumina, silica gel, Elorisil) separates analytes of a relatively narrow polarity range away from extraneous, interfering compounds of a different polarity (e.g., organo-chlorine pesticides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons). 

I ARC I ARC Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risk of Chemicals to Man, Vol. 5, Some Organo-chlorine Pesticides, Lyon, International Agency for Research on Cancer, 1974... 

Pesticides. There are four major classes of pesticides, the organo-chlorines, the organo-phosphorus compounds, the carbamates and a class based on pyrethrins, chemicals which occur naturally in plants. The organo-chlorine pesticides, of which DDT is the best-known, are no longer in use because of their adverse environmental... 

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