Renal, biliary, pulmonary and faecal excretion experiments were carried out with labelled hexachloro-1,3-butadiene [( 14C]HCBD) in male Sprague-Dawley rats, given orally (p.o.) and intravenously (i.v.) in doses of 1 and 100 mg kg-1 as a solution in polyethylene glycol. The radioactivity excreted over 72 h was determined in rats fitted with exteriorized biliary cannulae and in rats whose bile ducts remained fully functional, respectively. In addition, bile duct-duodenum cannula-linked rats, of which the donor was given 100 mg kg-1 [14C]HCBD orally and the recipient had also a bile fistula, were examined within 30 h for radioactivity in the excreta, the kidney, the liver and the plasma. In non-cannulated rats, fractional urinary excretion decreased when the dosage increased and amounted to 23% and 8.6% after i.v. injection or 18.5% and 8.9% after p.o. administration of 1 and 100 mg kg-1, respectively. Pulmonary excretion of radioactivity was less than 9% and was not affected by the increase in dosage. In bile duct-cannulated rats, fractional urinary excretions were similar irrespective of the dose and the route of administration and amounted to ca. 7.5% of the dose. Decrease in fractional biliary excretion occurred with increase in dosage (88.7% vs 72%) after i.v. injection and (66.8% vs 58%) after gavage. In cannulated rats, faecal excretion was less than 0.5% after i.v. injection and accounted for 3% and 16% of the dose after p.o. administration of 1 and 100 mg kg-1, respectively.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)