Transport of Organic Environmental Contaminants to Animal Products

Abstract

The use of synthetic organic chemicals, particularly pesticides, has been a normal agricultural practice for many years. In addition to compounds intentionally used in agricultural production, other synthetics with the potential to cause adverse environmental effects and/or food contamination have been introduced into agricultural environments. These unintended contaminants have arisen as by-products of the synthesis of approved compounds, as contaminants of materials used in normal practice, from accidental misuse of industrial compounds in place of approved compounds, and as constituents of emissions and discharges from industrial processes. The number of potential contaminants and contamination scenarios is large. For example, any semivolatile organic compound hypothetically can be transported as a vapor or particle through the atmosphere and deposited onto plants, soils, and other surfaces (Bidleman 1988). Nonvolatile compounds may also be transported through the atmosphere in the particle phase. Hazardous organic chemicals potentially present in such landapplied materials as sewage sludge and waste water are estimated to number in the thousands (O’Connor et al. 1991; Jacobs et al. 1987). Because of the diversity of chemicals and circumstances, knowledge of the fate and transport of the unintended contaminants contains many gaps and areas of uncertainty.