Persistent Organic Pollutant — organochlorine pesticide

Toxaphene in the bedroom

By — 19-year firefighter and entrepreneur. Published July 2026.

Toxaphene was once the most heavily used insecticide in the United States by volume — over 100 million pounds applied annually at its peak in the 1970s. It is a complex mixture of chlorinated camphenes. IARC classifies it as Group 2B (possibly carcinogenic). The Stockholm Convention lists it as an Annex A POP. Canada prohibits it under SOR/2025-270 (in force 30 June 2026). Unlike the termite-treatment OCPs (chlordane, aldrin, heptachlor), toxaphene was primarily agricultural, so its bedroom relevance is mainly through food chain bioaccumulation and long-range atmospheric transport rather than direct indoor contamination.

Toxaphene — Embr Bedroom Chemistry Atlas

At a glance

Chemical familyOrganochlorine — chlorinated camphene mixture (complex pesticide)
CAS number8001-35-2
ClassificationIARC Group 2B (possibly carcinogenic to humans); Stockholm Convention Annex A (elimination); Canada SOR/2025-270 prohibited
Where you encounter itLegacy agricultural contamination (cotton, soybeans, livestock); global atmospheric transport to remote regions; food chain (fish, particularly Great Lakes and Arctic); no direct home application
Sleep micro-environment relevanceMinimal direct bedroom relevance — toxaphene was not used for structural pest control. Exposure is primarily dietary (fish from contaminated waters) and through global atmospheric transport to remote regions

Regulatory & certification status

European UnionPOP Regulation (EU) 2019/1021 — banned. Original dirty dozen Stockholm POP. Regulatory
United StatesEPA cancelled all registrations (1990). CERCLA hazardous substance. California Proposition 65 listed (cancer). Regulatory
CanadaProhibited under the Prohibition of Certain Toxic Substances Regulations, 2025 (SOR/2025-270), in force 30 June 2026. Regulatory — Canada authority
InternationalStockholm Convention Annex A (elimination) — original dirty dozen POP. IARC Group 2B (possibly carcinogenic). Regulatory — International authority

What it is

Toxaphene is not a single compound but a complex mixture of over 670 chlorinated bornane (camphene) congeners, produced by chlorinating camphene extracted from pine resin. It was the most heavily used insecticide in the United States by volume during the 1970s, applied primarily to cotton, soybeans, and livestock. The mixture is lipophilic, persistent, and subject to long-range atmospheric transport — it has been detected in Arctic air and fish thousands of kilometres from any application site. IARC classified toxaphene as Group 2B based on sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in animals (liver and thyroid tumours) and inadequate evidence in humans.

Where it shows up in bedding

Toxaphene was not used in homes, buildings, or bedding products. Unlike chlordane and aldrin, it was strictly an agricultural and livestock pesticide. Its bedroom relevance is indirect: toxaphene is subject to long-range atmospheric transport and bioaccumulates in the food chain, particularly in fish. Dietary exposure through contaminated fish is the primary route for the general population. For most bedrooms, toxaphene is not a meaningful exposure source — but its presence in the Stockholm Convention dirty dozen reflects its global persistence.

The Embr Exposure Ledger: Toxaphene

One chemical, several public questions, answered from independent datasets and joined here — the environment it shows up in, the body burden it carries, how it is regulated, and what actually reduces it.

This compound appears in 5 of the Embr Exposure Ledger’s 10 exposure datasets.
Is it in the air?
In U.S. outdoor air: about 2e-06 in a million added lifetime cancer risk.Source: EPA AirToxScreen (2020) — modeled ambient air-toxics concentrations and risk
At what level would it matter?
Published benchmarks exist: a residential indoor-air screening level of 0.0088 µg/m³, set on a cancer endpoint (1-in-a-million excess lifetime risk). A screening level is the concentration at which EPA would look further, not a boundary between safe and harmful. The ledger holds no measured sleeping-environment concentration for this compound, so there is nothing here to compare the benchmark against — it tells you what would matter, not what is in any room.Source: US EPA, Regional Screening Levels (RSL) Summary Table — consolidated toxicity values from IRIS, PPRTV, ATSDR, Cal EPA and OPP
Who releases it?
17 US facilities reported releasing it in 2024 across 10 states and territories. These are self-reported quantities leaving a facility, not levels anyone encountered, and the two national programs are not added together — they use different reporting thresholds.Source: US EPA, Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) Basic Data File, 2024 reporting year; Environment and Climate Change Canada, National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI), releases 1993-present
Does the law flag it?
Listed under California Proposition 65 for cancer since 1988. Carries an EU-wide binding classification as carcinogenic (category 2). That classifies the substance itself; it does not restrict any product. Banned in the EU under the persistent organic pollutants Regulation: manufacture, sale and use are prohibited. Specific exemptions apply.Source: California OEHHA Proposition 65 List (Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986)Source: EU CLP Annex VISource: EU POPs Regulation

Detection and body-burden figures are occurrence data, not a personal measurement or a health diagnosis. Part of the Embr Exposure Ledger — an open, cross-dataset chemical join (download the data), reusable with attribution.

Citations

  1. IARC (2001). Toxaphene. IARC Monographs Vol. 79. Source Regulatory
  2. ATSDR (2014). Toxicological Profile for Toxaphene. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Source Regulatory
  3. Government of Canada. Prohibition of Certain Toxic Substances Regulations, 2025 (SOR/2025-270). Source Regulatory

Frequently asked questions

  • Was toxaphene used in homes?

    No. Unlike chlordane, aldrin, and heptachlor, toxaphene was used exclusively in agriculture and on livestock — not for structural pest control. Its presence in indoor environments is negligible unless a home is located on or near former agricultural land that was heavily treated.

  • Why is toxaphene in the Stockholm Convention if it was only agricultural?

    Toxaphene was the most heavily used insecticide in the US by volume, and its complex mixture of chlorinated camphenes is subject to long-range atmospheric transport — it has been found in Arctic air and fish thousands of kilometres from any application site. Its global persistence and ubiquity, not just local toxicity, drove its inclusion in the original dirty dozen POPs.

Related compounds

  • Endosulfan — a later organochlorine insecticide, listed under the same Annex A
  • DDT — another agricultural OCP in the dirty dozen
  • Chlordane — a dirty dozen OCP used for termite control
  • Mirex — another banned OCP used as both pesticide and flame retardant
  • Lindane — an organochlorine once applied directly to bedding

Embr is a sleep environment company researching and addressing the chemistry of the bedroom. Research and product development in progress.

Last reviewed 2026-07-07. If you find a factual error, contact us.