The Environmental Chemistry, Fate and Effects of Nonionic Surfactants

Holt, Martin; Mitchell, George C.; Watkinson, R. J.

doi:10.1007/978-3-540-47108-0_2

Cited by 30 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 176 publications

(89 reference statements)

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“…Correlations between the EC w values thus obtained and toxicity toward various organisms (Eqns. [8][9][10][11] are presented in Table 2. The quality of these correlations confirms, on the one hand, the concept of concentration additivity and proves, on the other hand, that the in vitro test system presented here is a valid tool to predict nonspecific narcotic effects.…”

Section: Toxicity Of Commercial Mixtures Of Aeomentioning

confidence: 99%

Membrane toxicity of linear alcohol ethoxylates

Müller

Zehnder

Escher

1999

Enviro Toxic and Chemistry

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Abstract-The membrane toxicity of linear alcohol ethoxylates (AEO/single reference compounds and technical mixtures) was investigated with an in vitro method based on time-resolved spectroscopy on energy-transducing membranes. The nonspecific membrane perturbation of narcotic chemicals can be quantified by the degree of disturbance of buildup and relaxation of the membrane potential in membrane preparations of the purple bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides. The effect concentrations obtained for this narcotic effect correlated well with the results from various toxicity tests on whole organisms. In addition, the effect concentrations at the target site, the biological membrane, were derived from the nominal effect concentrations using membranewater partition coefficients. The test set of linear AEO comprised compounds with an alkyl chain length of 8 to 16 carbon units and 5 to 14 ethoxylate (EO) units covering more than four orders of magnitude of hydrophobicity (expressed as octanol-water partition coefficient). All AEO exhibited their toxic effect at concentrations well below the critical micelle concentration. When comparing aqueous effect concentrations, toxicity increased strongly with increasing length of the alkyl chain and showed a small parabolic dependence on the number of EO units with a maximum at eight EO units. With the toxic effect expressed in terms of membrane concentrations, all AEO exhibited similar activity in the concentration range typical for narcotic chemicals. The toxic membrane concentrations of AEO with 5 and Ն8 EO units were 200 and 60 mmol/kg lipid, which correspond to the critical body residues of nonpolar and polar narcotics in fish, respectively. In addition, the toxic effects of mixtures of AEO were measured and could be modeled as the sum of activities of the single constituents, confirming the concept of concentration additivity of compounds with the same mode of toxic action.

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Section: Toxicity Of Commercial Mixtures Of Aeomentioning

confidence: 99%

Membrane toxicity of linear alcohol ethoxylates

Müller

Zehnder

Escher

1999

Enviro Toxic and Chemistry

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“…Only recently has interest been shown on the aquatic safety of AEs [5]. Several previous studies on the aquatic toxicity of AEs to fish and invertebrates have been reported [6][7][8][9][10] along with two recent reviews on fate and effects of surfactants [1,11]. In 1994, the Dutch government began to assess environmental safety of AE and a review was published summarizing available data [5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acute Toxicity and Structure–activity Relationships of Nine Alcohol Ethoxylate Surfactants to Fathead Minnow and Daphnia Magna

Wong¹,

Dorn²,

Chai³

1997

Environ Toxicol Chem

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Abstract-Aquatic toxicity of nine commercial-grade alcohol ethoxylate surfactants was studied in acute exposures to fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas) and Daphnia magna. All studies were conducted in accordance with USEPA TSCA Good Laboratory Practice Standards. Mean measured surfactant concentrations in the exposure solutions showed good agreement with nominal concentrations for both fathead minnow (R 2 ϭ 0.98, p ϭ 0.05) and daphnid (R 2 ϭ 0.99, p ϭ 0.05) tests. Surfactant recoveries ranged from 59 to 97% and 67 to 106% in the fathead minnow and daphnid solutions, respectively. Response of both species to the surfactants was generally similar. Surfactant toxicity tended to increase with increasing alkyl chain lengths. The effect of low average ethylene oxide (EO) groups on increased surfactant toxicity was more evident in the daphnid exposures. Quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) models were developed from the data, which relate surfactant structure to toxicity. The models predict increasing toxicity with decreasing EO number and increasing alkyl chain length. The models also indicate that average alkyl chain length has a greater effect on toxicity than average EO groups. Further, the models indicate that both species did not differ markedly in their response to alkyl chain length effects, while the number of EO groups had a stronger effect on daphnids than fathead minnow. Model-predicted toxicity agreed well with toxicity estimated from USEPA alkyl ethoxylates SARs and with toxicity values reported in the literature for several surfactants previously studied.

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“…Hot water, however, will soften them and loosen them from the threads -thus allowing the detergent to lift the contaminants from the fabric [5], [6]. Due to physicochemical properties of the detergent [7]- [10] it is necessary to examine the amount of pollutants entering the wastewater system together with laundry effluents. Once in environment, surfactants may have a harmful effect on organisms living there, mainly due to their toxicity and the enhanced solubility of other toxic organic compounds [11]- [14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Physicochemical Pretreatment of Contaminated Microfibre Cloths after Their Use in Waterless Car Wash / Ar virsmas aktīvām vielām piesārņotu bezūdens automašīnu tīrīšanas mikrošķiedru audumu fizikāli-ķīmiskā priekšapstrāde.

Strikauska¹,

Bērziņš²,

Arbidans³

et al. 2015

Materials Science and Applied Chemistry

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-Contaminated microfibre cloths (80 % polyester and 20 % polyamide) which were previously used in waterless car cleaning process were treated in ultrasonic bath. Efficiency of water, ethanol, 2-propanol and ethylene glycol as liquid phase for ultrasonic treatment was compared. Chemical oxygen demand (COD), concentration of surfactants and total nitrogen in the extract were tested after 0 min, 10 min, 30 min and 60 min ultrasonic (US) exposure (42 kHz). In all cases the COD values gradually increased in a time dependent manner from 6 % to 35 % with ethanol, from 17 % to 37 % with ethyleneglycol and from 17 % to 33 % with 2-propanol at 10 to 60 min US mode, respectively.

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The Environmental Chemistry, Fate and Effects of Nonionic Surfactants

Cited by 30 publications

References 176 publications

Membrane toxicity of linear alcohol ethoxylates

Membrane toxicity of linear alcohol ethoxylates

Acute Toxicity and Structure–activity Relationships of Nine Alcohol Ethoxylate Surfactants to Fathead Minnow and Daphnia Magna

Physicochemical Pretreatment of Contaminated Microfibre Cloths after Their Use in Waterless Car Wash / Ar virsmas aktīvām vielām piesārņotu bezūdens automašīnu tīrīšanas mikrošķiedru audumu fizikāli-ķīmiskā priekšapstrāde.

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