Technical Report
Organic explosives and related compounds
Rosenblatt, D; Burrows, E; Mitchell, W; Parmer, D
Army Biomedical Research and Develoment Lab
Fort Detrick, MD
For much of this century production and usage of explosives and propellants have been responsible for release to the environment of a variety of energetic organic nitro compounds. This chapter covers the compounds of greatest importance; their uses are indicated and methods for their manufacture or laboratory synthesis are summarize. Those physiochemical properties of greatest utility in environment risk assessment are identified and listed. Analytical methods are described briefly, with references given to more detailed literature. For the more extensively studied compounds, the microbiological and chemical transformation known to take place in the laboratory and in the environment and the metabolic transformations observed in animals and man are discussed. Toxic manifestations in mammals, humans, fish and other aquatic organisms, as well as threshold levels for these effects, are summarized. While the process of utilization of available experimental data to develop criteria and standards to assure protection of human health and preservation of the biosphere is in its infancy and changing rapidly, a short summary of criteria currently accepted in the U.S. for certain of the munitions compound's is presented.
experimental data, environments, risk, production, mammals, humans, synthesis, chemical properties, health, biochemistry, threshold effects, explosives, metabolism, propellants, ammunition, organic compounds, level(quantity), protection, release, animal
The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry