U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Date of this Version
2009
Abstract
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 toxaphenecongeners in fish, expressed as colony revertants per mg of residual toxaphene, was no greater than that of technical-grade toxaphene.Themutagenicimpactofthetoxapheneresidualsinagedsoilstatistically was less than that for technical-grade toxaphene. Two specific congeners, a hexachlorobornane(labeled Hx-Sd) and a heptachlorobornane (labeled Hp-Sd), were found to accumulate over time in both soil and fish extracts, but did not show increased mutagenic impacts relative to that produced by technical- grade toxaphene.
Comments
Published in Ecotoxicology and EnvironmentalSafety72 (2009) 162–172.