Pesticide uptake into membranes measured by fluorescence quenching.

Pesticides that contain chlorine have been shown to quench the fluorescence of carbazole-labeled phospholipids. Incorporation of these carbazole-labeled phospholipds into model membranes provides a system that allows the rapid determination of the uptake rates of chlorinated hydrocarbons into model membranes. This technique can be used in the determination of diffusion rates and partition coefficients of chlorine-containing organic compounds in model membrane systems, and hence may provide a method by which the bioaccumulation potential of synthetic chlorine-containing compounds can be estimated.