Table of Contents
What does hexachlorobenzene do to humans?
Brief exposure to very high levels of hexachlorobenzene may cause adverse effects on the nervous system such as weakness, tremors, and convulsions; skin sores; and liver and thyroid effects. Long-term exposure can cause damage to the liver and reproductive system and can cause developmental effects.
What is the use of hexachlorobenzene?
Uses. Hexachlorobenzene was used widely as a pesticide to protect seeds of onions and sorghum, wheat, and other grains against fungus until 1965. It can be used with or without other seed treatments, fungicides and/or insecticides.
What does hexachlorobenzene do to the environment?
(1) Hexachlorobenzene has been listed as a pollutant of concern to EPA’s Great Waters Program due to its persistence in the environment, potential to bioaccumulate, and toxicity to humans and the environment (2). ) would result in not greater than a one-in-ten thousand increased chance of developing cancer.
What is hexachlorobenzene found in?
Hexachlorobenzene can mostly be found in treated and background soils, sediments, and oceans. It can also be found in air, surface water, and groundwater due to use and disposal of hexachlorobenzene products and as a byproduct of other processes.
How is hexachlorobenzene prepared?
The method of preparing hexachlorobenzene comprising heating benzene hexachloride to a temperature of at least 230 C. in the presence of activated carbon while passing chlorine through the reaction mixture in an amount such that all of the chlorine is not reacted.
How can hexachlorobenzene enter and leave the body?
Most hexachlorobenzene leaves your body as hexachlorobenzene in the feces. Some hexachlorobenzene is converted to other chemicals in your body and some of these chemicals leave your body in the urine.
Is hexachlorobenzene a PCB?
The three most abundant organochlorine pollutants in human serum samples are polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), and hexachlorobenzene (HCB). PCBs have mainly been used as hydraulic fluids, coolant–insulation fluids in transformers, and plasticizers in paints.
Is hexachlorobenzene aromatic?
Synthesis. Hexachlorobenzene has been made on a laboratory scale since the 1890s, by the electrophilic aromatic substitution reaction of chlorine with benzene or chlorobenzenes.
How hexachlorobenzene is formed?
Hexachlorobenzene is a white crystalline solid that is not very soluble in water. It does not occur naturally in the environment. It is formed as a by-product while making other chemicals, in the waste streams of chloralkali and wood-preserving plants, and when burning municipal waste.
How do you convert benzene to hexachlorobenzene?
1 Answer. When benzene is treated with excess of chlorine in presence of anhydrous aluminium chloride, it gives hexachlorobenzene.
What is the boiling point of hexachlorobenzene?
612°F (322.2°C)Hexachlorobenzene / Boiling point
What is dioxin exposure?
Short-term exposure of humans to high levels of dioxins may result in skin lesions, such as chloracne and patchy darkening of the skin, and altered liver function. Long-term exposure is linked to impairment of the immune system, the developing nervous system, the endocrine system and reproductive functions.
How is hexachlorobenzene made?
What is the difference between benzene hexachloride and hexachlorobenzene?
Hexachlorobenzene is a substituted compound obtained by replacing all the hydrogen atoms in benzene with chlorineatoms. On the other hand, benzene hexachloride is an addition compound formed when three moles of chlorine add on one mole of benzene under reaction conditions.
How can you be exposed to dioxin?
Today people are exposed to dioxins primarily by eating food, in particular animal products, contaminated by these chemicals. Dioxins are absorbed and stored in fat tissue and, therefore, accumulate in the food chain. More than 90 percent of human exposure is through food.
How are humans exposed to dioxins?
How do you form hexachlorobenzene from benzene?
What products contain dioxin?
Fatty foods such as meat, poultry, seafood, milk, egg and their products are the major dietary sources of dioxins. Accidental exposure to large amount of dioxins could lead to the development of chloracne, a skin condition, excessive body hair and other skin lesions such as skin rashes and skin discolouration.
Is hexachlorobenzene toxic to humans?
Hazard Summary. Hexachlorobenzene is formed as a byproduct during the manufacture of other chemicals. It was widely used as a pesticide until 1965. Chronic (long-term) oral exposure to hexachlorobenzene in humans results in a liver disease with associated skin lesions.
What is hexachlorobenzene used for?
Chemical Classification: Pesticides (chemicals used for killing pests, such as rodents, insects, or plants) Summary: Hexachlorobenzene was widely used as a pesticide to protect the seeds of onions and sorghum, wheat, and other grains against fungus until 1965. It was also used to make fireworks, ammunition, and synthetic rubber.
How does hexachlorobenzene enter the environment?
Hexachlorobenzene has been used primarily as a fungicide or biocide. Organochlorine pesticides can enter the environment after pesticide applications, disposal of contaminated wastes into landfills, and releases from manufacturing plants that produce these chemicals.
How do you test for hexachlorobenzene exposure?
Urine: The assessment of hexachlorobenzene exposure can be accomplished through measurement of the metabolite, pentachlorophenol. This test may be useful for identification of exposure. However, there was no information located which demonstrated a correlation between urine levels and exposure levels or the onset of adverse health effects.