A re‐evaluation of PETROTOX for predicting acute and chronic toxicity of petroleum substances

Abstract

The PETROTOX model was developed to perform aquatic hazard assessment of petroleum substances based on substance composition. The model relies on the hydrocarbon block method, which is widely used for conducting petroleum substance risk assessments providing further justification for evaluating model performance. Previous work described this model and provided a preliminary calibration and validation using acute toxicity data for limited petroleum substance. The objective of the present study was to re-evaluate PETROTOX using expanded data covering both acute and chronic toxicity endpoints on invertebrates, algae, and fish for a wider range of petroleum substances. The results indicated that recalibration of 2 model parameters was required, namely, the algal critical target lipid body burden and the log octanol-water partition coefficient (K ) limit, used to account for reduced bioavailability of hydrophobic constituents. Acute predictions from the updated model were compared with observed toxicity data and found to generally be within a factor of 3 for algae and invertebrates but overestimated fish toxicity. Chronic predictions were generally within a factor of 5 of empirical data. Furthermore, PETROTOX predicted acute and chronic hazard classifications that were consistent or conservative in 93 and 84% of comparisons, respectively. The PETROTOX model is considered suitable for the purpose of characterizing petroleum substance hazard in substance classification and risk assessments. Environ Toxicol Chem 2017;36:2245-2252. © 2017 SETAC.

Toxicological and ecotoxicological properties of gas-to-liquid (GTL) products. 2. Ecotoxicology

“…In some cases, the differences between predicted and experimentally determined chronic aquatic toxicity could be 2-3 orders of magnitude. Evidence of the conservative nature of the PETROTOX model in the prediction of chronic aquatic toxicity of petroleum products can be found in a recent assessment by Redman et al (2017). In this study, the researchers found that chronic aquatic toxicity predictions for petroleum products were generally within a factor of 5 of empirical data.…”

Biodegradation and Ecotoxicity of Branched Alcohol Ethoxylates: Application of the Target Lipid Model and Implications for Environmental Classification

“…The TLM was originally derived for a set of known narcotic chemicals (n = 140) and test organisms (sp = 33) (Di but has since been expanded and revised to include additional species (McGrath et al, 2004), additional classes of petroleum products (i.e., gasoline constituents, mono-and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) (McGrath et al, 2005;McGrath and Di Toro, 2009), and additional environmental compartments (i.e., soil and sediment) (Redman et al 2014b). The TLM forms the basis for the PET-ROTOX and PETRORISK tools, widely used in hazard and exposure assessments for petroleum hydrocarbon products and hydrocarbon solvents in North America and the European Union (EU) (Redman et al, 2012;Redman et al, 2014a;Redman et al, 2017).…”

Passive dosing yields dissolved aqueous exposures of crude oil comparable to the CROSERF (Chemical Response to Oil Spill: Ecological Effects Research Forum) water accommodated fraction method

“…Passive dosing has an advantage over traditional dosing methods in maintaining well‐controlled exposures that do not exceed solubility limits of individual or multiconstituent substances. Recent studies have applied this concept by adding test oil into medical‐grade silicone tubing, which is then introduced into the aqueous test media to produce a WAF (Kang et al ; Redman et al ). A second passive dosing format involves application of silicone O‐rings.…”