Environmental fate of explosives

Waste disposal practices associated with military production of weapons, especially before and during World War 11, have resulted in significant contamination of soils and ground water with high explosives such as TNT, RDX and HMX. Development of remediation and risk management strategies for these contaminated sites as well as development of approaches for sustainable use of active training and weapons testing sites require an understanding of how the energetic compounds interact with the environment. Factors affecting leaching and transport, microbial degradation, phytotoxicity and plant uptake, and invertebrate and vertebrate toxicity are determinants of ultimate environmental fate and hazard potential. In this article, we will summarize our current understanding of these interactions, identify significant data deficiencies, and briefly discuss the drivers of future research in this area. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.