ABSTRACT
Dibromomethane is a primary emission product of macroalgae. Macroalgae are often concentrated along beaches and coastlines and releases of dibromomethane occur though dissolution into seawater followed by volatilization into air or directly by the algae. Dibromomethane may be released to the environment during its production and use in chemical synthesis, as a solvent, or as a gage fluid. Dibromomethane has a high vapor pressure and low adsorptivity to soil. Consequently, if released on soil, it will be expected to volatilize from the soil surface and leach into the ground. If released in water, dibromomethane would be primarily lost by volatilization with a half-life of 5.1 hr from a model river of 1 m depth, flowing at 1 m/sec with a wind speed of 3 m/sec. In the atmosphere, dibromomethane will be lost by reaction with photochemically produced hydroxyl radicals. The estimated half-life for this reaction is 213 days.
