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TOXICOLOGICAL PROFILE FOR CHLORDANE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Public Health Service Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry May 1994 CHLORDANE ii DISCLAIMER The use of company or product name(s) is for identification only and does not imply endorsement by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. CHLORDANE iii UPDATE STATEMENT A Toxicological Profile for Chlordane was released on December 1989. This edition supersedes any previously released draft or final profile. Toxicological profiles are revised and republished as necessary, but no less than once every three years. For information regarding the update status of previously released profiles contact ATSDR at: Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry Division of Toxicology/Toxicology Information Branch 1600 Clifton Road NE, E-29 Atlanta, Georgia 30333 CHLORDANE vii CONTRIBUTORS CHEMICAL MANAGERS(S)/AUTHOR(S): Henry G. Abadin, M.S.P.H. ATSDR, Division of Toxicology, Atlanta, GA Ronald Baynes, D.V.M., M.S. Paul F. Goetchius, D.V.M. Syracuse Research Corporation, Syracuse, NY THE PROFILE HAS UNDERGONE THE FOLLOWING ATSDR INTERNAL REVIEWS: 1 . Green Border Review. Green Border review assures the consistency with ATSDR policy. 2 . Health Effects Review. The Health Effects Review Committee examines the health effects chapter of each profile for consistency and accuracy in interpreting health effects and classifying endpoints. 3 . Minimal Risk Level Review. The Minimal Risk Level Workgroup considers issues relevant to substance-specific minimal risk levels (MRLs), reviews the health effects database of each profile, and makes recommendations for derivation of MRLs. 4 . Quality Assurance Review. The Quality Assurance Branch assures that consistency across profiles is maintained, identifies any significant problems in format or content, and establishes that Guidance has been followed. CHLORDANE ix PEER REVIEW A peer review panel was assembled for chlordane. The panel consisted of the following members: 1. Dr. Rajender Abraham, President, Abraham Associates, Limited, Albany, New York 2. Dr. Syed M. GhiasUddin, Toxicologist, Indiana Department of Environmental Management, Indianapolis. Indiana 3. Dr. Morris Cranmer, Private Consultant, Cranmer and Associates, Inc., Little Rock, AR. These experts collectively have knowledge of chlordane’s physical and chemical properties, toxicokinetics, key health end points, mechanisms of action, human and animal exposure, and quantification of risk to humans. All reviewers were selected in conformity with the conditions for peer review specified in Section 104(i)( 13) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, as amended. Scientists from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) have reviewed the peer reviewers’ comments and determined which comments will be included in the profile. A listing of the peer reviewers’ comments not incorporated in the profile, with a brief explanation of the rationale for their exclusion, exists as part of the administrative record for this compound. A list of databases reviewed and a list of unpublished documents cited are also included in the administrative record. The citation of the peer review panel should not be understood to imply its approval of the profile’s final content. The responsibility for the content of this profile lies with the ATSDR. CHLORDANE 1 1. PUBLIC HEALTH STATEMENT This Statement was prepared to give you information about chlordane and to emphasize the human health effects that may result from exposure to it. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has identified 1,350 hazardous waste sites as the most serious in the nation. These sites comprise the “National Priorities List” (NPL): Those sites which are targeted for long-term federal cleanup activities. Chlordane has been found in at least 176 of the sites on the NPL. However, the number of NPL sites evaluated for chlordane is not known. As EPA evaluates more sites, the number of sites at which chlordane is found may increase. This information is important because exposure to chlordane may cause harmful health effects and because these sites are potential or actual sources of human exposure to chlordane. When a substance is released from a large area, such as an industrial plant, or from a container, such as a drum or bottle, it enters the environment. This release does not always lead to exposure. You can be exposed to a substance only when you come in contact with it. You may be exposed by breathing, eating, or drinking substances containing the substance or by skin contact with it. If you are exposed to a substance such as chlordane, many factors will determine whether harmful health effects will occur and what the type and severity of those health effects will be. These factors include the dose (how much), the duration (how long), the route or pathway by which you are exposed (breathing, eating, drinking, or skin contact), the other chemicals to which you are exposed, and your individual characteristics such as age, gender, nutritional status, family traits, life-style, and state of health. 1.1 WHAT IS CHLORDANE? Chlordane is a man-made chemical that was used as a pesticide in the United States from 1948 to 1988. It is sometimes referred to by the trade names Octachlor and Velsicol 1068. It is a thick liquid whose color ranges from colorless to amber, depending on its purity. It may CHLORDANE 2 1. PUBLIC HEALTH STATEMENT have no smell or a mild, irritating smell. We do not know what it tastes like. Chlordane is not a single chemical, but is a mixture of many related chemicals, of which about 10 are major components. Some of the major components are trans-chlordane, cis-chlordane, ß-chlordene, heptachlor, and trans-nonachlor. Chlordane does not dissolve in water. Therefore, before it can be used as a spray, it must be placed in water with emulsifiers (soaplike substances), which results in a milky-looking mixture. From 1983 until 1988, chlordane’s only approved use was to control termites in homes. The pesticide was applied underground around the foundation of homes. When chlordane is used in the soil around a house, it kills termites that come into contact with it. Before 1978, chlordane was also used as a pesticide on agricultural crops, lawns, and gardens and as a fumigating agent. Because of concerns over cancer risk, evidence of human exposure and build up in body fat, persistence in the environment, and danger to wildlife, the EPA canceled the use of chlordane on food crops and phased out other above-ground uses over the next 5 years. In 1988, when the EPA canceled chlordane’s use for controlling termites, all approved use of chlordane in the United States stopped. Manufacture for export continues. For more information see Chapters 3 and 4. 1.2 WHAT HAPPENS TO CHLORDANE WHEN IT ENTERS THE ENVIRONMENT? When used as a pesticide on crops, on lawns and gardens, and to control termites in houses, chlordane enters the environment. Although it is no longer used in the United States, it may be used in other countries. In soil, it attaches strongly to particles in the upper layers of soil and is unlikely to enter into groundwater. It is not known whether chlordane breaks down in most soils. If breakdown occurs, it is very slow. Chlordane is known to remain in some soils for over 20 years. Persistence is greater in heavy, clayey or organic soil than in sandy soil. Most chlordane is lost from soil by evaporation. Evaporation is more rapid from light, sandy soils than from heavy soils. Half of the chlordane applied to the soil surface may evaporate in 2 to 3 days. Evaporation is much slower after chlordane penetrates into the soil. In water, some chlordane attaches strongly to sediment and particles in the water column and CHLORDANE 3 1. PUBLIC HEALTH STATEMENT some is lost by evaporation. It is not known whether much breakdown of chlordane occurs in water or in sediment. Chlordane breaks down in the atmosphere by reacting with light and with some chemicals in the atmosphere. However, it is sufficiently long lived that it may travel long distances and be deposited on land or in water far from its source. Chlordane or the chemicals that chlordane changes into accumulate in fish, birds, and mammals. Chlordane stays in the environment for many years and is still found in food, air, water, and soil. Chlordane is still commonly found in some form in the fat of fish, birds, mammals, and almost all humans. For more information see Chapter 5. 1.3 HOW MIGHT I BE EXPOSED TO CHLORDANE? Everyone in the United States has been exposed to low levels of chlordane. A more relevant question is whether or not you may have been exposed to high levels of chlordane. Before its ban in 1988, you might have been exposed to high levels of chlordane if you worked in the manufacture, formulation, or application of chlordane. Therefore, farmers and lawn-care workers may have been exposed to chlordane before 1978, and pest control workers may have been exposed to chlordane before 1988 by skin contact and breathing dust and vapor. A national survey conducted from 1980 to 1983 estimated that 3,732 workers were potentially exposed to chlordane in the United States. This number of potentially exposed workers should have decreased after chlordane’s use was banned in the United States. However, the ban on chlordane did not eliminate it from your environment, and some of your opportunities for exposure to chlordane continue. Today, people receive the highest exposure to chlordane from living in homes that were treated with chlordane for termites. Chlordane may be found in the air in these homes for many years after treatment. Houses in the deep south and southwest were most commonly treated. However, chlordane use extended from the lower New England States south and west to California.

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