Talk:Toxaphene

Structure and formula
It may be a bit confusing that the empirical formula is given as C10H10Cl8 while the sum of hydrogen and chlorine atoms in the image of the molecular structure is only 16 (if the image means only the substitution of chlorine for hydrogen). It should be stated that toxaphene also contains other chlorinated carbohydrates (but I don't know which ones). Icek (talk) 21:17, 30 December 2007 (UTC)

Bibliography Of Potential Sources
These are potential sources we can use to better this article. The sources will be properly cited if they end up being used:

Itoconnor7 (talk) 01:10, 17 February 2015 (UTC)
 * Ludvik, George F. “Insecticide.” AccessScience. McGraw-Hill Education, 2014. Web. 17 Feb. 2015. Sej942 (talk) 01:12, 17 February 2015 (UTC)
 * http://www.epa.gov/airtoxics/hlthef/toxaphen.html Aukere (talk) 01:05, 17 February 2015 (UTC)
 * http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp94-c3.pdf
 * http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxfaqs/tf.asp?id=547&tid=99
 * http://oehha.ca.gov/water/phg/pdf/Ph4Toxap92603.pdf
 * http://www.epa.gov/ogwdw/pdfs/factsheets/soc/tech/toxaphen.pdf
 * http://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/ntp/roc/content/profiles/toxaphene.pdf
 * http://www.chem.unep.ch/gpa_trial/18toxa.htm
 * http://www.popstoolkit.com/about/chemical/toxaphene.aspx
 * http://www.toxipedia.org/display/toxipedia/Toxaphene
 * https://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1316119887505/1316119944714
 * 2012. Toxaphene [MAK Value Documentation, 2003]. The MAK Collection for Occupational Health and Safety. 282–297.
 * those leads are mostly web-based, and some appear to be pretty biased or flakey. Get some peer reviewed overviews of the area. Stuff that is published.  Ask your teacher about how professionals do literature searches.  Here are some leads:

Tsai, W.-T., "Current status and regulatory aspects of pesticides considered to be persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in Taiwan", Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2010, 7, 3615; c Mansour, S. A., "Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in Africa: Egyptian scenario", Hum. Exp. Toxicol. 2009, 28, 531; d Lamb, J. C. I. V., Neal, B. H., Goodman, J. I., "Risk assessment of toxaphene and its breakdown products: time for a change?", Crit. Rev. Toxicol. 2008, 38, 805; e Wise, S. A., Poster, D. L., Kucklick, J. R., Keller, J. M., VanderPol, S. S., Sander, L. C., Schantz, M. M., "Standard reference materials (SRMs) for determination of organic contaminants in environmental samples", Anal. Bioanal. Chem. 2006, 386, 1153; f de Geus, H.-J., Wester, P. G., Schelvis, A., de Boer, J., Brinkman, U. A. T., "Toxaphene: a challenging analytical problem", J. Environ. Monit. 2000, 2, 503. --Smokefoot (talk) 01:29, 17 February 2015 (UTC)

Summary of future edits
When we edit this article we hope to discuss the following topic in regards to toxaphene: Aukere (talk) 01:09, 19 February 2015 (UTC)
 * History
 * Chemical properties and use of the chemical
 * Farming and agriculture
 * Environmental fate/persistence
 * Exposure
 * Ingestion/absorption
 * Health effects
 * Reproductive and developmental toxicity
 * Carcinogenicity
 * Immune system
 * Respiratory system
 * Animal experiments and in vitro studies
 * Regulations
 * The article is about a chemical compound, NOT about what is bad about it. So stay neutral.  Be mindful of WP:SECONDARY (real published reviews) and when you get close to human health WP:MEDRS.  Finally, remember that you live in one country with only a few % of world's population, but Wikipedia speaks to many people.  Good luck, --Smokefoot (talk) 01:58, 19 February 2015 (UTC)

3/29 Peer Review by Yogi44 (talk) 21:42, 30 March 2015 (UTC) Introduction: Great job explaining the toxicity of the chemical when it was used most frequently in the 1970s-1980s, but possibly include a bit more in the introduction about how it is still used today and why we should continue to be aware.

Composition: explain a bit more so that a person who has little chemical knowledge can understand. Although it could be simplified somewhat, nice job of including the various chemical formulas.

Environmental Effects:First paragraph is excellent. For the second, you could possibly move it to exposure since it includes animals and people in the canadian arctic.

Exposure: Great work! Very clear and easy to understand.

Health Effects: Good job for the effects on humans, but maybe you could also include something mentioned above about the effects on animals.

Applications: Maybe include a few more of the original uses and where it was most prevalent when it was banned in 2004.

Trade Names: Very interesting! I like that you included this part since it seems to have so many.

Regulations: Good explanations and nice job adding links to other pages.

Great job, this was a well-organized and interesting article!

Draft of Lead Section
This is a draft of a new proposed lead section for Toxaphene. This section will outline the main points that will be expanded upon and discussed in more detail throughout the article. References and hyperlinks will be added in the next few days.

"Toxaphene is a pesticide used extensively in farming in the 1970's and early 1980's. It was most commonly used in the cotton and soybean industry in the Southeastern United States. Toxaphene is a mixture of approximately 200 different chemicals and is produced by reacting chlorine gas with camphene. It can be most commonly found as a yellow to amber waxy solid.

Toxaphene was banned in the United States in 1990 and was banned globally by the 2001 Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants. It is a very persistent chemical that can remain in the environment for 1-14 years without degrading, particularly in the soil.

Testing performed on animals, mostly rats and mice, has demonstrated that toxaphene is harmful to animals. Exposure to toxaphene has proven to stimulate the central nervous system, as well as induce morphological changes in the thyroid, liver, and kidneys.

Toxaphene has been shown to cause adverse health affects in humans. The main sources of exposure are through food, drinking water, breathing contaminated air, and direct contact with contaminated soil. Exposure to high levels of toxaphene can cause damage to the lungs, nervous system, liver, kidneys, and in extreme cases, may even cause death. It is thought to be a potential carcinogen in humans, though this has not yet been proven."

Sej942 (talk) 15:26, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Peer Review
Overall, this article is very informative. It was clearly written and easy to understand. One suggestion I would have is to include any information you might have on what affects the speed of Toxaphene degradation (UV light, heat, etc...) because the range of 1-14 years given in the introduction seems a little broad without a further explanation. Also, what are common degradates of Toxaphene? (if that information is available)... Also, perhaps a short list of some of the more notorious or more harmful chemicals from the 670 that it is composed of would be interesting for the reader. It is very possible these are all in the works already, as I know none of us are done with our articles yet. It looks great so far! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ctpen15 (talk • contribs) 22:38, 6 April 2015 (UTC)


 * Concerning the 670 substances added by Itoconnor7 in this edit, I left a comment in my edit summary. Please clarify or correct. --Leyo 14:21, 7 April 2015 (UTC)


 * The information regarding the 670 chemicals composing toxaphene was found in multiple sources but the most reliable one was the ATSDR toxilogical profile for toxaphene. The link to this source is http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/ToxProfiles/tp94.pdf and can be found in the "External links" section. It is the full report from which the 3rd citation, "Toxaphene - ToxFAQs," pulls all its information and summarizes. Leyo do you think I should provide this detailed .pdf with its own reference or leave it in the external links section? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Itoconnor7 (talk • contribs)
 * The number seems to originate from the following paper:
 * B. Jansson, U. Wideqvist: Analysis of toxaphene (PCC) and chlordane in biological samples by NCI mass spectrometry. In: International Journal of Environmental Analytical Chemistry 13(4), 1983, p. 309–321,,.
 * I would use this paper as an additional reference after having double-checked that the above information is really contained. Currently, I do not have access to the paper. --Leyo 17:09, 13 April 2015 (UTC)
 * that's a primary source and we really shouldn't use it. but it you want it, email me and i will email it to you. Jytdog (talk) 17:13, 13 April 2015 (UTC)
 * WP:MEDREF is not applicable in this case, but this ref might be cited along with the ATSDR toxilogical profile.
 * I thought that Itoconnor7 should have a look at the paper. --Leyo 10:57, 14 April 2015 (UTC)
 * ah, i hear you on that.  but we should use secondary sources everywhere in WP - WP:NPOV (especially), and WP:VERIFY and WP:OR call us to rely on secondary sources, in all our editing. Jytdog (talk) 12:23, 14 April 2015 (UTC)

Health effects on humans
The section on health effects on humans builds on these two references: To me, these are not very good sources. A peer reviewed published review would meet WP:MEDRS, but state regulations and "Air Toxics" websties seems flimsy.--Smokefoot (talk) 13:16, 14 April 2015 (UTC)
 * "Public Health Goal for TOXAPHENE in Drinking Water". California Environmental Protection Agency.
 * "Toxaphene". Technology Transfer Network - Air Toxics Web Site. United States Environmental Protection Agency. Retrieved 17 March 2015.