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4286847 
Technical Report 
Reduction of Hexahydro-1,3,5- trinitro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX) Toxicity to the Cladoceran Ceriodaphnia dubia Following Photolysis in Sunlight 
Burton, DT; Turley, SD 
1995 
Yes 
Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology
ISSN: 0007-4861
EISSN: 1432-0800 
NTIS/02982903_3 
GRA and I 
GRA and I 
89-95 
Hexahydro-1,3,5- trinitro.1,3,5-triazine (RDX) is a high explosive used extensively by the military in a number of applications. The compound may enter the aquatic environment via wastewater during manufacturing activities and blending operations at load, assembly, and pack (LAP) plants. RDX has been shown to be toxic to a number of aquatic organisms including algae, some invertebrates, and fish at concentrations well below its solubility limit in water (Etnier 1986; Burton et al. 1993). Several studies have shown that RDX is decomposed via photolysis in aqueous solutions at UV wavelengths shorter than 290 nm and at longer wavelengths above 290 nm which can occur from irradiance in natural sunlight (Kubose and Hoffsommer 1977; Glover and Hoffsommer 1979; Spanggord et al. 1980). Liu et al. (1984) found that exposure of composition B type LAP waste (1.6:1 mixture of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene and RDX) to simulated sunlight (filtered UV light) reduced toxicity to several aquatic organisms. Photolyzed 2,4,6- trinitrotoluene (no RDX present) was also less toxic. The photolysis of RDX alone was not studied by Liu et al. (1984). The current study was initiated to verify whether or not photolyzed RDX may be less toxic than the parent compound. A 7-d chronic test with the cladoceran, Cenbdaphnia dubia, was conducted in order to compare the data to those of Peters et al. (1991) who exposed the organism to the parent compound under the same test conditions. 
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