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Ecotoxicological information

Long-term toxicity to fish

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Administrative data

Link to relevant study record(s)

Description of key information

Although the reported data on the study of Rustamova (1977) are limited, especially regarding the results of the 3 - generation test, the study clearly showed effects on survival, growth and reproduction of fish at long-term exposure to NaOH concentrations of 25 mg/L and higher (EU RAR, 2007; section 3.2.1.1.2, page 29).

Key value for chemical safety assessment

Additional information

The OECD SIDS (2002) assigned a low code of reliability ('invalid' or 'not assignable') to all available tests, as in general the tests were not conducted according to the current test guidelines (EU RAR, 2007; section 3.2.1.1.4, page 30). Furthermore, in many tests reports there were no data on pH, buffer capacity and/or test medium composition, although this is essential information for toxicity tests with NaOH. This is the most important reason why most of the tests were considered 'invalid'. Despite of this, there is no need for additional aquatic toxicity testing with NaOH, as all available tests resulted in a rather small range of toxicity values (chronic toxicity test: > or = 25 mg/L) and there are sufficient data on the pH ranges that are tolerated by major taxonomic groups.

In water (including soil or sediment pore water), NaOH is present as the sodium ion (Na+) and hydroxyl ion (OH-), as solid NaOH rapidly dissolves and susequently dissociates in water (EU RAR, 2007; section 3.1.3, page 24). Therefore, NaOH does not fulfil the P (Persistence) criterion (PBT assessment conducted accoring to TGD (EC, 2003) (EU RAR, 2007; section 3.3.1.2, page 34)).