While this chemical fate for chlorine has been well-documented by Earth chemists, known as geochemists, for some time, recent attention focuses on some of the lesser known, supporting roles for chlorine in the natural world. Oxygen is an essential component of respiration for humans and terrestrial animals. Researchers have determined that chlorine plays a critical supporting role in complex electrochemical reactions that take place in plants. H 2 O, making oxygen abundantly available in the atmosphere. In fact, depletion of chloride in plants inhibits oxygen production.
Chlorine is also an important participant in complex natural atmospheric chemical reactions.
Organic compounds are a large family of chemicals composed of both geometrically simple and complex chains, rings and branching molecules of mostly carbon and hydrogen. They include the important chemicals of life. Organic chemicals, including chlorinated organic compounds, are synthesized industrially also and used for the manufacture of countless items of everyday use, such as plastics and pharmaceuticals. The presence of chlorinated organic compounds in soils, sediments, and water bodies is usually attributed to contamination resulting from manufacturing and waste incineration. It is now clear, however, that many of these compounds are produced naturally by organisms and inorganic chemical processes , i.e. , processes not involving organic chemicals.