A test program was conducted to evaluate the mutagenicity of toxaphene residuals extracted from aged soils and from fish collected in creeks near a toxaphene-contaminated site. The ultimate objective was to determine if the residual toxaphene congeners were more or less mutagenic than those in technical-grade toxaphene. The study showed that the mutagenicity of the bioaccumulated toxaphene cong...

Toxaphene production, in quantities similar to those of polychlorinated biphenyls, has resulted in high toxaphene levels in fish from the Great Lakes and in Arctic marine mammals (up to 10 and 16 microg g-1 lipid). Because of the large variabiliity in total toxaphene data, few reliable conclusions can be drawn about trends or geographic differences in toxaphene concentrations. New developments ...

Toxaphene is a manufactured pesticide comprising a complex mixture of hundreds of chlorinated terpenes. After DDT was banned from use in the United States in 1972, toxaphene became the most popular substitute. Control of pests on cotton crops was the principal use of toxaphene in the United States, although the pesticide was used to control a variety of insects on a range of crops and to eradic...

ORGANOHALOGEN COMPOUNDS – Volume 66 (2004) 217 Introduction Toxaphene is a broad-spectrum insecticide, was one of the most heavily used agricultural chemicals on a global scale, especially against pests in cotton field and vegetable farms. Basically, commercial production of toxaphene involves the reaction of camphene, chlorine activated by ultraviolet radiation and certain catalysts to yield c...

Concerns have been raised about the presence of the bioaccumulating pesticide toxaphene in the tissues of Great Lakes fish. Toxaphene, banned in the U.S. since 1990, is an environmentally persistent chlorinated hydrocarbon mixture of over 670 chemical congeners. Current fish consumption advisories issued in the Great Lakes states focus on concentrations of PCBs and mercury in fish. The Great La...

Toxaphene, an organochlorine pesticide, is the major contaminant of Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus) in the Canadian Arctic. The objective of this study was to investigate the combined effects of toxaphene exposure and infection by the larval stage of the cestode Diphyllobothrium dendriticum on fish growth, nutritional composition, and hematology. Hatchery-reared Arctic charr were subjected to...

Polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) congeners and components of the complex mixture toxaphene are stable in the environment and readily bioaccumulated into wildlife and human tissues. PBDEs are presently used in large quantities worldwide as flame retardants in textiles, furniture, computer equipment, and cables. Toxaphene is a complex mixture of chlorinated bornanes and bornenes that was the ...

Volatilization of toxaphene residues from agricultural soil was investigated at farms in the southern United States by collecting air samples 40 cm above the soil. The concentration of total toxaphene ranged over several orders of magnitude, from <3 to 6,500 ng g(-1) dry weight in soil, and <0.3 to 42 ng m(-3) in air. A log-log plot of total toxaphene concentrations in soil and overlying air sh...

Pacific tree frog (Hyla regilla) tadpoles were collected throughout the Sierra Nevada mountain range, California, USA, in 1996 and 1997 and analyzed for the presence of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and toxaphene. Whole-tadpole sigma PCB levels ranged from 244 ng/g (wet wt) at lower elevations on the western slope to 1.6 ng/g high on the eastern slope, whereas sigma toxaphene levels ranged f...

The primary purpose is to do cancer risk assessment of toxaphene by using four steps of risk assessment proposed by the United States National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council (NAS/NRC). Four steps of risk assessment including hazard identification, dose-response relationship, exposure assessment, and risk characterization were used to evaluate cancer risk of toxaphene. Toxaphene w...