Has the federal government made recommendations to protect
human health?
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) banned the sale of all heptachlor
products and restricted the use of heptachlor to the control of fire ants in power
transformers. EPA recommends a maximum of 2.78 parts of heptachlor and heptachlor
epoxide per trillion parts of drinking water or seafood (2.78 ppt) that you eat
each day. For up to 10 days, a child should not drink water with greater than
10,000 ppt heptachlor. For longer exposures, a child should not drink water with
greater than 5,000 ppt heptachlor or 150 ppt heptachlor epoxide. Quantities greater
than 1 pound of heptachlor or heptachlor epoxide that enter the environment must
immediately be reported to the National Response Center.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) limits the amount of heptachlor
and heptachlor epoxide on raw food crops and on edible seafood to from 0-10 parts
per billion (ppb), depending on the type of food product. The limit on edible
seafood is 300 ppb, and for the fat of food- producing animals is 200 ppb.
The American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) and
the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recommend a maximum in
workplace air over an 8-hour workday for a 40-hour work week of 0.5 milligrams
of heptachlor per cubic meter (0.5 mg/m³).
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