Toxaphene microbial degradation

In soils, toxaphene can persist for lengthy periods, with microbial degradation occurring under aerobic and anaerobic conditions (Cohen etal. 1982). Pimentel (1971) reported that toxaphene,... 

As with chlordanes, toxaphene can be nonracemic in sediments, but predominantly from in situ microbial degradation. Several chlorobornane enantiomers were quantified in a 1992 sediment core from Hanson Lake, Yukon, Canada, treated with toxaphene as a piscicide in 1963 [149]. Two hexachlorinated congeners, B6-923 and an unidentified congener, were... 

To this point, from an analysis of ° values it has been established that a number of environmentally significant compounds would be susceptible to reduction and the reducing capability is present. Do these processes proceed at significant rates under environmental conditions It had been observed 25 years ago that highly chlorinated compounds such as DDT and toxaphene were degraded more rapidly in anaerobic soil systems. The degradation rate decreased with a decrease in the reduction potential and both microbial and abiotic processes were involved. 

Taken collectively, the data clearly indicated differential vaporization as the primary mode of toxaphene loss from leaf surfaces and gave no indication that chemical reactivity played even a minor role. If toxaphene had been degraded either on surfaces or during its brief residence time in the air prior to sampling, changes in the chromatographic profile would have been erratic with new peaks observed in the capillary chromatograms such as occur in samples of anaerobic soil and ditch sediment where microbial decomposition is extensive. 

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