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FATE OF FENTHION IN SALT-MARSH ENVIRONMENTS: 1. FACTORS AFFECTING BIOTIC AND ABIOTIC DEGRADATION RATES IN WATER AND SEDIMENT
Citation:
Cripe, C., E. O'Neill, M. Woods, W. Gilliam, AND P. Pritchard. FATE OF FENTHION IN SALT-MARSH ENVIRONMENTS: 1. FACTORS AFFECTING BIOTIC AND ABIOTIC DEGRADATION RATES IN WATER AND SEDIMENT. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/J-89/160.
Description:
Fenthion (Baytex), an organophosphate insecticide, is frequently applied to salt-marsh environments to control mosquitoes. hake-flask tests were used to study rates of abiotic and biotic degradation of fenthion and the environmental parameters that affect these rates. Water or water-sediment (500 mg dry weight/L) slurries from salt marshes located along the Northwest Florida Gulf Coast were used. Flasks contained 200 ug fenthion/L, and degradation rates were determined by following decrease of fenthion over time. ydrolysis and biodegradation in water were relatively insignificant fate processes; fenthion disappeared from flasks containing water, formalin-sterilized water, or formal in-sterilized sediment very slowly (half-life >2 weeks). he presence of nonsterile sediment resulted in a rapid exponential disappearance of fenthion (half-life >3.8 days). iodegradatlon was assumed since sterile sediment systems showed a much slower decrease of fenthlon, and the production of polar compounds (hexane-unextractable) from radiolabeled fenthion was greater in the presence of sediment than sterilized sediment.