Volatility chlordane

To study the absorption of cis-chlordane by bluegill and Xenopus, the exposure was made to 5 ppb of insecticide. The biomass and volume was one 5-g fish/6L and three 27-g Xenopus/8L in 10-liter glass cylinders. The aeration of the water was kept to the minimum and the containers were covered with aluminum foil to reduce loss due to volatilization. The radioactivity in control water without animals and in water with fish was monitored by counting 5 ml of water in 15 ml of Instagel (Packard Instruments) (16). 

Plant. Alfalfa plants were sprayed with technical chlordane at a rate of 1 Ib/acre. After 21 d, 95% of the residues had volatilized (Dorough et ah, 1972). 

While agricultural soils now have nonracemic OC pesticide residues and emit these nonracemic compositions to the atmosphere, this was not necessarily always the case. Archived extracts of air samples collected in Sweden, Slovakia, and Iceland between in the early 1970s had racemic cis- and fra 5-chlordane [138]. This observation suggests that those residues were released either from fresh emissions, as these compounds were in active use at the time, and/or they were volatilized from racemic residues in soil. The former hypothesis is more likely, given the EFs of these compounds in sediment cores, which were racemic in the 1950s but less so after that point, including the 1970s [138, 139]. 

Eitzer, B.D. lannucci-Berger, W. Mattina, M.I., Volatilization of weathered chiral and achiral chlordane residues from soil Environ. Sci. Technoi. 2003, 37, 4887-4893. 

Evaporation is the major route by which chlordane is removed from soil. Photochemical breakdown by exposure to sunlight plays a very minor role in eliminating chlordane from soil. In water, the major mechanism by which chlordane exits is by volatilization or by adsorption to sediments. Therefore, surface water almost always has very little chlordane while the higher concentrations are found in suspended solids and sediments. 

Toxaphene, lindane, chlordan, and heptachlor were adsorbed by soil particulate matter (158, 216, 255, 261, 268, 279, 291, 295, 299, 301, 302, 303, 304, 305) and volatilized from aqueous (292, 297) and soil (255, 264, 275, 280, 283, 293, 306) systems in a way analogous to that of aldrin, dieldrin, and endrin. Adsorption of the pesticides was most highly related to the organic matter content of soils and aquatic systems and probably occurred through weak physical intermolecular forces at lipophilic sites. Adsorbing and volatizing processes were involved in the fate of these compounds in aquatic and soil systems. Lindane was much more mobile in soil systems than the others (246, 255), probably because of its greater solubility (Table VI), and lindane and heptachlor volatilized much more readily from soils and aquatic systems (290, 292, 293, 296, 306). 

Inhalation exposure for the general population arises chiefly from living in homes treated with chlordane, because chlordane volatilizes from the treated soil and accumulates in indoor air. Although levels at which adverse effects occur are not definitely known, neurological symptoms and jaundice have been associated with chlordane in treated homes. Levels in treated homes have been measured at 0.61 mg/m. Adverse effects have not been reported for industrial exposure levels at which adverse effects would occur in occupationally exposed workers are not known. Presumably,... 

According to TRI90 (1992), 4,422 pounds of chlordane were discharged to air from facilities that produced, processed, or used chlordane in the United States in 1990. These releases were almost exclusively from the sole producer of chlordane in the United States, Velsicol Chemical Corporation. At least in recent years in the United States, chlordane s use has been restricted and then banned however, chlordane is still present in soil from it s past use as a crop pesticide and termiticide. Chlordane, nonetheless, is present in the atmosphere, which is probably due to volatilization from... 

Therefore, it is expected that chlordane mobility will be enhanced at this site. Volatilization from soil is a major loss mechanism for chlordane the rate depends on such parameters as the soil... 

Only a few microorganisms have been isolated that are capable of degrading chlordane. Iyengar and Prabhakara Rao (1973) reported that a pure culture of Aspergillus nigerdegraded chlordane after adaptation, but Beeman and Matsumura (1981) found it to be inactive and speculated that the former authors had not considered other factors such as adsorption to glass and volatilization. 

Atallah YH, Whitacre DM, Hoo BL. 1979. Comparative volatility of liquid and granular formulations of chlordane and heptachlor from soil. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 22 570-574. 

Air and water transport of technical chlordane has resulted in the detection of chlordane and its metabolites in nonbiological samples worldwide. Chlordane enters the atmosphere mainly through aerial applications of dust and spray formulations, soil erosion by wind, and volatilization from soil and water. In aquatic systems, chlordane enters by way of surface runoff and rainfall chlordane is rapidly adsorbed onto bottom sediments, where it persists. Atmospheric transport of chlordanes is considered the major route of global dissemination. Levels of chlordane compounds in the marine atmosphere of the southern hemisphere are nearly the same as those of DDT and its metabolites this strongly suggests that chlordane compounds are globally distributed and dispersed. The yearly input of m-chlordane to the Arctic Ocean from atmospheric sources is... 

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