Estimation of physicochemical properties of 2-ethylhexyl-4-methoxycinnamate (EHMC) degradation products and their toxicological evaluation

Abstract

The organic UV filters, commonly used in personal protection products, are of concern because of their potential risk to aquatic ecosystems and living organisms. One of UV filters is ethylhexyl-4-methoxycinnamate (EHMC) acid. Studies have shown that, in the presence of oxidizing and chlorinating factors, EHMC forms a series of products with different properties than the substrate. In this study, the toxicities of EHMC and its transformation/degradation products formed under the influence of NaOCl/UV and H2O2/UV systems in the water medium were tested using Microtox® bioassay and by observation of mortality of juvenile crustaceans Daphnia magna and Artemia Salina. We have observed that oxidation and chlorination products of EHMC show significantly higher toxicity than EHMC alone. The toxicity of chemicals is related to their physicochemical characteristic such as lipophilicity and substituent groups. With the increase in lipophilicity of products, expressed as log KOW, the toxicity (EC50) increases. On the basis of physicochemical properties such as vapour pressure (VP), solubility (S), octanol-water partition coefficient (KOW), bioconcentration factor (BCF) and half-lives, the overall persistence (POV) and long-range transport potential (LRTP) of all the products and EHMC were calculated. It was shown that the most persistent and traveling on the long distances in environment are methoxyphenol chloroderivatives, then methoxybenzene chloroderivatives, EHMC chloroderivatives, methoxybenzaldehyde chloroderivatives and methoxycinnamate acid chloroderivatives. These compounds are also characterised by high toxicity.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s11356-018-1796-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Effects of Sulfamethoxazole and 2-Ethylhexyl-4-Methoxycinnamate on the Dissimilatory Nitrate Reduction Processes and N2O Release in Sediments in the Yarlung Zangbo River

“…EHMC is not only widely distributed in aquatic environments but also accumulates in aquatic organisms [26,27]. It has been reported that EHMC and its degradation products shown high ecological toxicity [28]. According to our previous studies, it is found that antibiotics and OUVFs occurred and were widely occurrence and distributed in the Yarlung Zangbo River.…”

Toxicity of UV filters on marine bacteria: Combined effects with damaging solar radiation

“…Previous studies demonstrated that UV filters could undergo photoinduced modifications that could alter their toxicity. BP3 displayed phototoxicity on human skin cells (Kim et al, 2018) and the UV-exposed EHMC showed an enhanced toxicity to Aliivibrio fischeri, Daphnia magna and Artemia salina (Gackowska et al, 2018). In this study, two strategies were used to investigate the combined effect of solar radiation and UV filters: (i) indirect effects: bacterial viability was monitored in the dark with UV filters previously exposed to solar radiation during 5 h (Figs.…”

Effect of Activated Sludge on the Degradation of 2-Ethylhexyl 4-Methoxycinnamate and 2-Ethylhexyl 4-(Dimethylamino)Benzoate in Wastewater

“…Green line indicates 5% of sludge, red line indicates 10% of sludge, and blue line indicates 20% of sludge Gago-Ferrero et al (2011), biodegradation processes of ODPABA in the sewer and during wastewater and/or sludge treatment cannot be ruled out. Moreover, our previous studies have shown that EHMC and ODPABA transform under influence of oxidising agents with formation of products significantly more toxic than the substrates themselves (Studziński et al 2017;Gackowska et al 2018). In order to verify whether biochemical transformations of UV filters occur under the influence of activated sludge, studies were carried out on model systems.…”

“…It may be due to the fact that it is a hydrophilic compound (log K ow 2.73), which migrates to water and is not absorbed in the soil, log K oc 1.415. The mentioned products are also formed under the influence of oxidising and chlorinating agents (Gackowska et al 2016(Gackowska et al , 2018.…”