Journal of Environmental Protection, 2010, 1, 231-241 231 doi:10.4236/jep.2010.13028 Published Online September 2010 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/jep) Hazard Assessment of Alternatives to Dicofol Ana I. Sánchez1*, M. Dolores Hernando1, Juan J. Vaquero2, Eloy García3,4, José M. Navas5 1Parque Científico Tecnológico, University of Alcala, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain; 2Department of Organic Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Alcala, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain; 3Department of Analytical Chemistry and Engineering Chem- istry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Alcala, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain; 4IMDEA Water Foundation, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain; 5Department of Environment, Spanish National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research and Technology (INIA), Madrid, Spain. Email:
[email protected] Received April 21st, 2010; revised May 12th, 2010; accepted May 22nd, 2010. ABSTRACT Dicofol was listed by International POPs Elimination Network (IPEN) as requiring immediate and urgent considera- tion and thus was considered as a new candidate by Persistent Organic Pollutant Review Committee (POPRC) as a possible persistent organic pollutant (POP). Dicofol is structurally similar to DDT. It is persistent in food and water, highly toxic to aquatic life and causes egg-shell thinning in some bird species. High concern, due to the lack of dicofol measurements in the Arctic, proving long range transport and bioaccumulation in wild life species, supports further impact assessment of this product. Under Stockholm Convention, substances identified as POPs are regulated with the objective to protect the environment and the human health. According to this objective, the search of environmental and healthy alternatives is helpful. This paper discusses the use of three groups of chemicals currently applied as alterna- tives to dicofol.