The experienced residue analyst is quite familiar with the indecisive and continuum-type curve produced by the pesticide toxaphene (a mixture of compounds described as "chlorinated camphene") when it is analyzed by gas chromatography and the concomitant problems involved in the interpretation of the analytical results obtained from a sample of an agricultural commodity that may be suspected of containing excess quantities (above legal tolerance limits) of this pesticide. The problem is enhanced if other pesticides, such as DDT, are present in the same residue mixture and it becomes acute in regulatory laboratories where the time factor between the receipt of the market sample and the required report of the chemical analysis may be no greater than twenty-four hours.
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