Toxaphene: Chemistry, Biochemistry, Toxicity and Environmental Fate

Abstract

Toxaphene is a complex mixture of polychlorinated monoterpenes with a broad spectrum of pesticidal activity. Before its ban in 1982, it was the most heavily used insecticide in the U.S. and many parts of the world. When dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) was banned in the early 1970s, toxaphene replaced DDT as a major agricultural insecticide (Schmitt et al. 1981). Cumulative world use of toxaphene during the period 1946 to 1974 exceeded 409,000 metric tons (Toxaphene Working Group 1977). Toxaphene was first introduced in the U.S. in 1945 by Hercules Co. as Hercules 3956, a new insecticide to control a variety of insect pests. It was registered for use on more than 277 agricultural commodities and crops to control 167 major insect pests. While its primary use has been on cotton, it has also been sprayed extensively on soybeans and peanuts, and has been used as a cattle dip (Korte et al. 1979). It was used most extensively in the southern and southeastern U.S. (Carey et al. 1978, 1979) where most cotton farming is located. Toxaphene and toxaphene-like preparations (camphachlor, polychlorocamphenes, and strobane) have also been used worldwide and are still used in South America, Africa, Mexico, Romania, Hungary, the Federal Republic of Germany, Poland, and the USSR (Saleh 1987).