Uses and Environmental effects of some polyhalogen compounds

This closing section surveys six specific, individually named polyhalogen compounds one at a time, covering for each both its practical uses (as a solvent, refrigerant, propellant, insecticide, antiseptic, etc.) and the documented hazards of exposure to it, whether to human health or to the wider environment: dichloromethane/methylene chloride (10.7.1), chloroform/trichloromethane (10.7.2), carbon tetrachloride/tetrachloromethane (10.7.3), iodoform/triiodomethane (10.7.4), the Freons -- chlorofluorocarbons used as refrigerants (10.7.5), and DDT, the banned but historically important organochlorine insecticide (10.7.6). The section closes the chapter by connecting the chemistry developed earlier (how strong or weak a given C-X bond is, section 10.4.1; how reactive a compound is towards substitution, section 10.6) to real consequences these compounds have for h …