ABSTRACT
Captan is a fungicide used to control many fruit diseases, ornamental and vegetable crops. People, who mix and apply captan, work in captan storage facilities, treat seeds with captan, or pick fruit that was treated with captan may receive dermal and inhalation exposure to captan at higher doses. The factors affecting degradation of captan in soil were found to be pH, soil type, soil moisture content and pesticide concentration. Captan may enter the atmosphere sorbed to particulate matter or as a vapor. Since captan has consistently been found in foods and beverages, the most widespread exposure will be from ingestion of contaminated food. Direct photolysis of captan is unimportant compared to hydrolysis; however, substances in water that sensitize singlet oxygen formation, such as methylene blue and chlorophyll may accelerate photolysis. The estimated half-lives for vapor phase captan reaction with photochemically generated hydroxyl radicals and ozone in the atmosphere is 2.6 hrs. and 1.4 hr.
