𝑐𝑖𝑠-DCCA (1, carboxyl-¹³C₂, 99%; 1-D, 97%) 100 µg/mL in acetonitrile-D₃
Item No.CDLM-9205-1.2
New Pyrethroids Available at CIL
The 1962 publication of Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” had a large impact on the way ordinary citizens viewed a widespread class of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) known as organochlorine (OC) pesticides, and encouraged environmental and public health professionals to scrutinize POPs much more than before.While the human life-saving benefits of using DDT and other pesticides to control malarial mosquitoes and other disease vectors are unquestioned, the toll of excessive DDT use on birds and other creatures, including highly exposed humans, in the environment has been high, and the subject of many efforts in the last 50 years to combat pests with chemicals that cause less collateral and chronic damage. The same applies to all pesticides and herbicides in widespread use today, and the balance between the benefits of these products and their unintended side effects is constantly shifting.
One direction pesticide manufacturers have taken is increased use of pyrethroid pesticides, which are significantly less persistent and less toxic than OC pesticides, organophosphorous (OP) pesticides, and many other types of pesticides that have been developed in the last century. Pyrethroid pesticides are synthetic relatives to pyrethrins, which are naturally occurring pesticides that can be found in certain members of chrysanthemum flowers that were historically used to repel insects and other pests long before the development of industrial pesticides.
Pyrethroids
One of the drawbacks of pyrethrins is that they are too benevolent, quickly decomposing under the mildest of conditions, so pyrethroids were developed to be longer-lasting, more potent, and hence more effective. Not surprisingly, these attributes lead to longer persistence where not desired, and stronger effects on humans and other organisms, although by most accounts, significantly less so than most alternatives. Pyrethroids can be particularly harmful to bees, dragonflies, fish and aquatic invertebrates. Their presence in wastewater, as is the case with many pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs), can be at toxic concentrations, and much like certain PPCPs can accumulate to therapeutic levels and cause harm in the environment.
Two significant facts emerge from investigations into trends in global pyrethroid usage:
• Annual usages are difficult to determine, but it appears clear that average annual usage more than doubled from the 1995-2000 time period to the 2000-2009 period.
• More importantly, "pyrethroids, amounting to a minor fraction in terms of tonnes of active ingredient, constituted as much as 81% of global insecticide use in terms of spray coverage."1
Such widespread use of any chemical, no matter how benign, calls for vigilance, but the clear benefits of pyrethroids also require sound science to support restrictions. The unstable nature of pyrethroids can cause analytical difficulties, making them classic candidates for analysis by isotope dilution mass spectrometry (IDMS).
CIL synthesized its first labeled pyrethroid, a mixture of cis- and trans-permethrin, in 1998, and the two primary metabolites, 3-(2,2-dichlorovinyl)-2,2-dimethyl-1-cyclopropane (DCCA) and 3-phenoxybenzoic acid (3-PBA) in 2000 and 2002 respectively. Isotope-labeled cypermethrin and cyfluthrin followed in December of 2004; earlier that year, CIL learned how to isolate the individual isomers of cis- and trans-permethrin.
In collaboration with the Pyrethroid Working Group, CIL is pleased to offer a suite of new dimethyl-D6-labeled pyrethroids, including bifenthrin, cyfluthrin (mix of stereoisomers), cyhalothrin, cypermethrin (mix of stereoisomers), deltamethrin, fenpropathrin, fenvalerate, permethrin (cis/trans mix) and tefluthrin. CIL has also produced the corresponding unlabeled quantitative standards for use with these standards. Of interest to some students of pyrethroid metabolism and exposure are certain transformation products produced by CIL, such as the DCCA and 3-PBA cited above.
Related Resources
➤ Standards for Environmental, Food, Water, and Exposure Analysis
➤ Analytical Standards for Human Exposure Analysis
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The Standard – April 2017
Reference
1. Global insecticide use for vector-borne disease control: a 10-year assessment (2000-2009 -- 5th ed, WHO/HTM/NTD/VEM/WHOPES/2011.6, .World Health Organization. ISBN 978 92 4 150215 3 (online version) Read more.