Determination of selected fate and aquatic toxicity characteristics of acrylic acid and a series of acrylic esters.
Acrylic acid, methyl acrylate, ethyl acrylate, and butyl acrylate are commercially important and widely used materials. This paper reports the results of a series of fate and aquatic toxicity studies. The mobility in soil of acrylic acid and its esters ranged from 'medium' to 'very high'. Calculated bioconcentration factors ranged from 1 to 37, suggesting a low bioconcentration potential. Acrylic acid and methyl acrylate showed limited biodegradability in the five day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5) test, while ethyl acrylate and butyl acrylate were degraded easily (77% and 56%, respectively). Using the OECD method 301D 28-d closed bottle test, degradability for acrylic acid was 81% at 28 days, while the acrylic esters ranged from 57% to 60%. Acrylic acid degraded rapidly to carbon dioxide in soil (t1/2 < 1 day). Toxicity tests were conducted using freshwater and marine fish, invertebrates, and algae. Acrylic acid effect concentrations for fish and invertebrates ranged from 27 to 236 mg/l. Effect concentrations (LC50 or EC50) for fish and invertebrates using methyl acrylate, ethyl acrylate, and butyl acrylate ranged from 1.1 to 8.2 mg/l. The chronic MATC for acrylic acid with Daphnia magna was 27 mg/l based on length and young produced per adult reproduction day and for ethyl acrylate was 0.29 mg/l based on both the reproductive and growth endpoints. Overall these studies show that acrylic acid and the acrylic esters studied can rapidly biodegrade, have a low potential for persistence or bioaccumulation in the environment, and have low to moderate toxicity.
Staples
C A
CA
Assessment Technologies, Fairfax, VA 22030, USA.
Murphy
S R
SR
McLaughlin
J E
JE
Leung
H W
HW
Cascieri
T C
TC
Farr
C H
CH
D000179:Acrylates / Q000032:analysis / Q000633:toxicity*; D000818:Animals; D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D003530:Cyprinidae; D003621:Daphnia; D033364:Decapoda; D009153:Mutagens / Q000032:analysis / Q000633:toxicity*; D017686:Oncorhynchus mykiss; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis / Q000633:toxicity*
D000179:Acrylates; D009153:Mutagens; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; C032490:n-butyl acrylate; C040833:ethyl acrylate; C036658:acrylic acid; C035956:methyl acrylate