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Environmental fate & pathways

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Testing of dichloromethane for biodegradability in water and sediments is complicated because of its high volatility.

 

The environmental fate of dichloromethane in water and sediment will be determined by biotic and abiotic degradation.

 

The QSARs estimated half-lives for biodegradation of dichloromethane in water and sediment based upon BIOWIN Ultimate Biodegradation are 900 hours (37.5 days) and 8100 hours (337.5 days), respectively. Whereas the half-lives of dichloromethane for volatilization from water are estimated as 1.1 hours (for a river) to 3.72 days (for a lake) using EPI Suite software.

 

The QSAR models predicts timeframe within days-weeks for primary biodegradation of dichloromethane and weeks-months for its ultimate degradation.

 

The following information is taken into account for any hazard / risk / persistency assessment: Overall ready biodegradability prediction provided by a number of BIOWIN (v.4.10) models suggests the dichloromethane is not ready biodegradable in the environment.