Abstract
Over 30000 chemicals are used in commercial quantities and very few of these chemicals have experimental data on their environmental degradability/persistence. This chapter reviews databases which can be searched for persistence information and what to do when the chemical of interest does not have any data. Two general approaches are suggested: (1) identify chemicals that are similar in structure and have persistence data or (2) use general quantitative structure-degradation relationships (QSDR) models. It is concluded that estimation methods are available for the most important degradation processes: atmospheric oxidation, biodegradation, and hydrolysis.
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Howard, P.H. (2008). Predicting the Persistence of Organic Compounds. In: The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/698_2008_012
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/698_2008_012
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