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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Inspector General
At a Glance
2006-P-00007
December 16, 2005
Catalyst for Improving the Environment
Why We Did This Review
The Glynn Environmental
Coalition, a nonprofit
community organization,
brought to the Ombudsman's
attention concerns about
toxaphene at a Superfund site
in Georgia.
Background
Toxaphene is an agricultural
pesticide that was heavily used
in the United States during the
1960s and 1970s. EPA
banned it for most uses in
1982, and for all uses in 1990,
because it posed a risk of
significant adverse impacts on
humans and the environment.
To further protect people from
the effects of toxaphene, EPA
limited how much toxaphene
can be in drinking water and
required related monitoring.
The EPA Superfund program
is cleaning up numerous sites
contaminated with toxaphene.
More Information Is Needed On
Toxaphene Degradation Products
What We Found
Toxaphene in the environment changes, or degrades. The resulting degradation
products are different from the original toxaphene in chemical composition and
how they appear to testing instruments, so they could go unreported. The
analytical methods EPA uses to identify and measure toxaphene are not designed
to identify toxaphene degradation products. However, a new testing method used
by others specifically tests for toxaphene degradation products. We believe EPA
should validate, approve, and use this method.
Certain toxaphene degradation products accumulate inside people. Although
studies indicate that some of these degradation products may be harmful, more
research is needed to determine how much of a risk these products pose to people.
What We Recommend
We recommend that the EPA Administrator direct
•	The Assistant Administrators for Water and for Solid Waste and
Emergency Response to validate and approve the new analytical method
that tests for toxaphene degradation products, and use the new method to
analyze environmental samples.
•	The Assistant Administrator for Research and Development to work with
others in EPA to arrange for the specific research needed to determine the
risk that toxaphene degradation products may pose to people.
For further information,
contact our Office of
Congressional and Public
Liaison at (202) 566-2391.
To view the full report,
click on the following link:
www.epa.aov/oia/reports/2006/
20051216-2006-P-00007.pdf

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