Abstract
Up to now, toxaphene has not been registered in Japan as agricultural chemicals. The chemical is one of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), therefore, there is a trend of internationally controlling. In this paper, information on persistency of toxaphene and global polluted situations were arranged. Determination by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was also described. The composition of toxaphene, which persisted in the environment, was remarkably different from original technical toxaphene with the passage of time. For example, the main pathway of decomposition in soil was reductive dechlorination. Specific congeners in human milk were B8-1413 and B9-1679. It was thought that the congeners had strong persistency due to a stable bornane skeleton having no strain in sixmembered ring. Problems in GC-MS were as follows. Toxaphene was thermally much less stable; electron impact ionization caused complex fragmentation; and each congener varied extremely in the relative response factor using negative ion chemical ionization. In the future, the establishment of analytical system having the advantage of accuracy and of precision requires selective separation of enantiomers and synthesis of standard substances.
