Residue composition of chlorobornanes as indicator of degradation pathways

Toxaphene, a mixture of chlorinated bornanes and camphenes with a high prop ortion of enantiomers, can be used as indicator for the investigation of en vironmental conditions which lead to the compositional pattern of toxaphene in environmental samples. Due to its persistence and long range transport, toxaphene is distributed throughout the world. The changes in composition after biotic or abiotic transformation are visible in the gas chromatograms of different environmental samples. These are important clues to transloca tion and degradation pathways.