Environmental Fate Assessment of Two Synthetic Polycarboxylate Polymers

Jop, Krzysztof M.; Guiney, Patrick D.; Christensen, Karen P.; Silberhorn, Eric M.

doi:10.1006/eesa.1997.1545

Cited by 9 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 5 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“… e Calculated using the estimated flow‐weighted mean influent concentration; that is, based on a joint contribution of the household and manufacturing influents given their relative wastewater flows and polymer concentrations [4]. …”

Section: Exposure Characterizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Marketing information indicates that about 15% of the material will end up in landfills as solid waste after being abraded from the floor surface. The remaining 85% is typically disposed of down the drain as part of household, commercial, and manufacturing discharges, where they may enter the environment primarily in effluents from wastewater treatment facilities [4]. The quantity of RP entering wastewater is based on an estimated U.S. annual production volume of 6.35 × 10 6 kg RP [10], the majority of which is used in graphics arts and newsprint.…”

Section: Exposure Characterizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Removal of polycarboxylates during wastewater treatment was confirmed in a field study conducted at the Racine Waste‐water Utility (Racine, WI, USA)[4]. This is a conventional activated sludge plant, averaging approximately 25 million gallons/d of flow, that receives input of PE and RP via discharges from both households and manufacturing facilities.…”

Section: Exposure Characterizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Mobility in soil . Soil mobility was not directly measured but is expected to be relatively low for both polymers based on measured sorption coefficient K oc values corrected to the organic carbon content of the sludge solid, of about 1,000 to 3,000 in the SCAS tests [4]. An organic matter content of 27.3%, determined in sludge, was used to compute the measured K oc values.…”

Section: Exposure Characterizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The fraction of low MW material in PE and RP is very low as already indicated; the fraction of free monomers is also very low, <0.03% and <0.2%, respectively. [4].…”

Section: Exposure Characterizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

An environmental risk assessment profile of two synthetic polymers

Guiney

Woltering

Jop

1998

Enviro Toxic and Chemistry

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A number of environmental fate and effects studies on two distinctly different polycarboxylates were conducted as part of a product stewardship program. These studies led to the development of an environmental risk assessment for the two materials. Polymer emulsion (PE) is a typical anionic, styrene‐acrylic polymer (MW 50,000–60,000) used in coating applications. Resin polymer (RP), insoluble at neutral pH but increasingly soluble at pH ≥8, is a neutral‐charged, styrene‐acrylic polymer (molecular weight 4,500–9,000) used primarily for graphic arts products. Some amount of both materials will enter the environment given their use and disposal patterns. Their environmental fate is driven by physical‐chemical characteristics. Both polymers demonstrated low biodegradation and bioaccumulation potential and strong sorption to soils, sludge, and sediments in laboratory and/or field studies. Ecotoxicity test results on a variety of plant and animal species indicated a very low order of acute and chronic toxicity. The environmental risk assessment included characterization of exposure in relevant environmental matrices, characterization of adverse effects or hazards to receptors for which there are complete exposure pathways, and characterization of risk by comparison of predicted exposure levels to adverse effect threshold levels. Based on conservative exposure assumptions, the safety margins established in this assessment indicate that the use of PE and RP, in both commercial and household applications, presents a very low risk to aquatic organisms in the water column and sediments, as well as to terrestrial plants, invertebrates, and wildlife. These polymers are also compatible with wastewater and solid waste treatment systems.

show abstract

Section: Exposure Characterizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Exposure Characterizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Exposure Characterizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Exposure Characterizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The fraction of low MW material in PE and RP is very low as already indicated; the fraction of free monomers is also very low, <0.03% and <0.2%, respectively. [4].…”

Section: Exposure Characterizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations