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Aquatic toxicology: A new element in the safety testing of surfactants?
Author(s) -
Alabaster J. S.
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
journal of the american oil chemists' society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.512
H-Index - 117
eISSN - 1558-9331
pISSN - 0003-021X
DOI - 10.1007/bf02673414
Subject(s) - aquatic toxicology , fish <actinopterygii> , environmental science , biochemical engineering , flexibility (engineering) , toxicity , contamination , environmental toxicology , acute toxicity , environmental chemistry , toxicology , engineering , chemistry , ecology , biology , fishery , mathematics , statistics , organic chemistry
Aquatic toxicology is becoming increasingly important in assessing the risks from environmental contamination by surfactants. Recent work by the Water Research Centre and others is discussed to show that: (a) there is a need for flexibility in approach even for preliminary screening test procedures and for toxicity tests to be relevant to field situations; (b) where linear chain surfactants pass through a normal biological treatment process these are readily biodegraded and reduced in toxicity, and in these circumstances toxicity tests should be made using biodegraded materials; (c) methods of analysis currently used overestimate the acute toxocity of surfactants to fish.