56 
Table 10: Overview of sPCA levels in selected environmental matrices at the start of this project. 
Sample 
Sampling location 
Sampling date 
sPCA concentration 
Reference 
Air 
Spitsbergen, 
Norway 
1999 
9-57 pg/m 3 
Borgen et al. 
2000 
Air 
Egbert, Canada 
1990 
65-924 pg/m 3 
Stern and Tomy, 
2000 
Freshwater biota 
different locations, 
Norway 
not specified 
108-3700 ng/g fat 
Borgen et al. 
2001 
Freshwater 
particulate matter 
different locations, 
Germany 
not specified 
69-860 ng/g dry 
weight 
Maulshagen et 
al., 2003 
Marine sediments 
different locations, 
Canada 
not specified 
4.52-135 ng/g dry 
weight 
Tomy et al, 
1999a 
5.2.2 Chlordane 
The pesticide technical chlordane was first synthesised in 1945 by Kearns et. al (1945), 
and its commercial production started in 1946 by Vesicol Corporation. About 70’000 
tons were manufactured between 1960 and 1988 (Dearth and Hites, 1991). Technical 
chlordane was neither manufactured in Europe nor in Japan (Falandysz et al, 1994), but 
was commercially available in Germany around 1950. In 1976, the pesticide was 
removed from the German market. First restrictions on the use of technical chlordane in 
the United States were decided in 1978 by the US Environmental Protection Agency. In 
1983, it was only allowed to be used to control underground termites (WHO, 1984). 
Technical chlordane is a contact and stomach pesticide (WHO, 1984) with a broad 
spectrum. It was mainly used for building protection, ornamental lawns and trees, 
drainage ditches, but also to protect crops like com and potatoes (WHO, 1984). 
5.2.2.1 Structures 
147 compounds could be identified in technical chlordane (Dearth and Hites, 1991). 
Main constituents are about 24 % trans-chlordane, 19 % cA-chlordane, 9 % y- 
chlordene, 7 % heptachlor, 7 % trans-nonachlor, 3 % a-chlordene, 3 % [3-chlordene, 
1 % chlordane and 19.5 % related compounds including cA-nonachlor (Bussart and 
Schor, 1948). Figure 1 shows the structure of the main chlordane congeners and 
metabolites.