Contents Notes |
"This summary presents acute and chronic toxicity test data and bioconcentration factors compiled over a two-year period on fish and invertebrates exposed to several representative chemicals from five chemical classes (chlorinated ethanes, chlorinated benzenes, chlorinated ethylenes, chlorinated dienes, and chlorinated propanes). The fathead minnows and Daphnia were quite similar in their sensitivities (acute and chronic) to each chemical class, while the rainbow trout were considerably more sensitive to all classes during acute tests, except for the chlorinated diene exposures, where they were more resistant. The ranking of acute and chronic sensitivity was generally the same for each chemical within each class of chemicals for all three species tested. Both the acute and chronic toxicity of all chemicals within a class increased as the number of chlorines in the chemical structure increased. Bioconcentration factors for fathead minnows were determined for four of the chemical classes tested. Hexachlorobenzene was bioconcentrated the most (23,000x), and tetrachloroethane was bioconcentrated the least (8x). Again, as with the toxicity experiments, the greater the number of chlorines on the molecule the greater the bioconcentration within each class of chemicals." |