57

5.2.2.2  Physical  properties
Chlordane  is  lipophilic  and  has  a  high  octanol-water  partitioning  coefficient  Kow-  Some
values  are  given  in  Table  11.  The  vapour  pressure  of  technical  chlordane  is  1.47  hPa  at
25  °C.  Water  solubility  of  technical  chlordane  is  32  pg/L  for  pure  water  (Johnson-Logan
  et  al,  1992).
Table  11:  log  K 0 w  values  of  main  chlordane  compounds  (Simpson  et  al,  1995).

Compound

log  K 0 w

heptachlor

6.10

trans  -chlordane

6.22

cis-chlordane

6.10

trans-nonachlor

6.35

cis-nonachlor

6.08

5.2.2.3  Metabolism
The  metabolite  oxychlordane  can  be  formed  from  cis-  and  /ran.s-chlordanc.  Feeding  of
rats  with  pure  trans-chlordane  resulted  in  a  larger  concentration  of  oxychlordane  in  the
tissues  compared  to  c/.s-chlordanc,  which  was  partly  metabolised  to  more  hydrophilic
and  more  easily  excretable  products  (Barnett  and  Wyman-Dorough,  1974).