Total organic bromine

Organic bromine has a zero tolerance because of the reported toxicity of monobromacetic acid. It can be extracted quantitatively with ether at pH 1. The determination is then the same as with total bromide (4). 

The total world consumption of flame retardants is over 2 billion pounds per year. Half is alumina trihydrate, one-quarter is organic bromine, with organic phosphorus, organic chlorine, and antimony oxide in smaller amounts. 

R.J. Norstrom, A.P. Gilman and D.J. Hallet, Total organically-bound chlorine and bromine in Lake Ontario Herring Gull eggs, 1977, by instrumental neutron activation and chromatographic methods, Sci. Total Environ. 20 217 (1981). 

Bromine is not as effective as chlorine in combating algae and oxidizing organic matter in the water. It sometimes causes a green color in the pool and occasionally imparts a brown discoloration to pool walls. Where local authorities permit bromination, the normal range for total residual bromine varies between 2.0 and 4.0 ppm (NSPI, 2002A). 

S. Echigo, X. Zhang, R.A. Minear, and M.J. Plewa. Differentiation of total brominated and chlorinated compounds in total organic halide measurement a new approach with an ion-chromatographic technique. ACS Sym. Ser., 761 330-342, 2000. 

Impurities in bromine may be deterrnined quantitatively (54). Weighing the residue after evaporation of a bromine sample yields the total nonvolatile matter. After removing the bromine, chloride ion may be deterrnined by titration with mercuric nitrate, and iodide ion by titration with thiosulfate water and organic compounds may be detected by infrared spectroscopy sulfur may be deterrnined turbidimetricaHy as barium sulfate and heavy metals may be deterrnined colorimetricaHy after conversion to sulfides. 

O, in a given air mass is destroyed over the Arctic, compared to near-total ozone destruction over Antarctica. As a result, bromine does make a significant contribution to the total O, destruction in the Arctic, and as a result, control of brominated organics is expected to have a greater effect on minimizing ozone destruction in this region. 

Figure 13.7 shows the effective total tropospheric concentration of chlorine from halocarbons from 1992 to 1996 (Montzka et al., 1996a). The concentration peaked in 1994 at 3.0 ppb, but when methyl chloride (CH-,C1) and other chlorinated organics are taken into account, the peak was likely 3.7 ppb. The total tropospheric chlorine concentration in mid-1995 decreased at a rate of approximately 25 ppt per year, in contrast to increases of 110 ppt per year in 1989 (Montzka et al., 1996a Cunnold et al., 1997). Bromine compounds show the same trend. As a result, the stratospheric levels of chlorine and bromine are expected to peak around the year 2000 (Montzka et al., 1996a World Meteorological Organization, 1995,1999). 

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