CHARACTERIZATION OF 3 MAJOR TOXAPHENE CONGENERS IN ARCTIC RINGED SEALBY ELECTRON IONIZATION AND ELECTRON-CAPTURE NEGATIVE-ION MASS-SPECTROMETRY

Three environmentally significant chlorinated bornane (CHB) congeners were extracted from Arviat ringed seal blubber and identified by using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (HRGC/HRECNIMS (CH4), low resolu tion EIMS, and linked field scanning). They are referred to as TS2 (Pa rlar#39, B8-531) [2-exo,3-endo,5-exo,6,6,8b,9c,10c (or 10a)-octachloro bornane], TS3 (Parlar#40, B8-1414) [2-endo,3-exo,5-endo,6-exo, 8c,9b,1 0a,10c (or 10a)-octachlorobornane] and TS4 (Parlar#42, Toxicant A, B8- 806/809) [2-exo,3-endo, 6,6, 8b,8c,9c,10c (or 10a)-octachlorobornane / 2-exo,3-endo,6,6, 8b,9b,9c,10a (or 10b)-octachlorobornane]. This is th e first time Toxicant A, known to be the most toxic CHB congener in te chnical toxaphene, has been found in any significant concentration in a marine mammal. Crown copyright (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Scienc e Ltd. All rights reserved.