Nguồn tài nguyên cá và động vật hoang dã kết hợp với khoảng 51 triệu ha (125 triệu mẫu Anh) trong miền đông nam Hoa Kỳ, và với Great Lakes, đặc biệt là hồ Ontario, đã được tiêu cực bị ảnh hưởng bởi sử dụng chuyên sâu và lan rộng của mirex, một hợp chất hydrocarbon clo (Waters và cộng sự . al 1977; Bell et al 1978; Kaiser 1978, Học viện Khoa học Quốc gia [NAS] 1978; Lowe 1982; Eisler 1985, Hill và Dent 1985; Sergeant và cộng sự năm 1993; Blus 1995, Hoa Kỳ Dịch Vụ Y Tế. | CHAPTER 21 Mirex INTRODUCTION Fish and wildlife resources associated with approximately 51 million ha 125 million acres in the southeastern United States and with the Great Lakes especially Lake Ontario have been negatively affected by intensive or widespread use of mirex a chlorinated hydrocarbon compound Waters et al. 1977 Bell et al. 1978 Kaiser 1978 National Academy of Sciences NAS 1978 Lowe 1982 Eisler 1985 Hill and Dent 1985 Sergeant et al. 1993 Blus 1995 . Public Health Service USPHS 1995 . Contamination of the Southeast and of Lake Ontario by mirex probably occurred between 1959 and 1978. During that period mirex was used as a pesticide to control the red imported fire ant Solenopsis invicta and the black imported fire ant Solenopsis richteri which infested large portions of Alabama Arkansas Florida Georgia Louisiana Mississippi North Carolina South Carolina and Texas. Under the trade name of Dechlorane mirex was used as a fire retardant in electronic components fabrics and plastics effluents from manufacturing processes resulted in the pollution of Lake Ontario. Regulatory agencies environmentalists and the general public became concerned as evidence accumulated demonstrating that mirex was associated with high death rates numerous birth defects and tumors and that it disrupted metabolism in laboratory mammals birds and aquatic biota. Mirex also tends to bioaccumulate and to biomagnify at all trophic levels of food chains. Field studies corroborated the laboratory findings and showed that mirex appeared to be one of the most stable and persistent organochlo-rine compounds known being resistant to chemical photolytic microbial metabolic and thermal degradation processes. Upon degradation a series of potentially hazardous metabolites are formed although it is generally acknowledged that the fate and effects of the degradation products are not fully understood. Mirex was also detected in human milk and adipose tissues at low concentrations the levels
