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Diss Factsheets

Ecotoxicological information

Toxicity to soil microorganisms

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Description of key information

Key value for chemical safety assessment

Additional information

No data on the toxicity to soil microorganisms are available for the test substance cobalt aluminium oxide. However, there are reliable data available for different structurally analogue substances.

The environmental fate pathways and ecotoxicity effects assessments for cobalt metal and cobalt compounds as well as for aluminium metal and aluminium compounds is based on the observation that adverse effects to aquatic, soil- and sediment-dwelling organisms are a consequence of exposure to the bioavailable ion, released by the parent compound. The result of this assumption is that the ecotoxicological behaviour will be similar for all soluble cobalt and aluminium substances used in the ecotoxicity tests.

As cobalt aluminium oxide has shown to be highly insoluble with regard to the results of the transformation/dissolution test protocol (pH 6, 28 d), it can be assumed that under environmental conditions in aqueous media, the components of the substance will be present in a bioavailable form only in minor amounts, if at all. Within this dossier all available data from cobalt and aluminium substances are pooled and used for the derivation of ecotoxicological and environmental fate endpoints, based on the cobalt ion and aluminium ion. For cobalt, only data from soluble substances were available and for aluminium, both soluble and insoluble substance data were available. All data were pooled and considered as a worst-case assumption for the environment. However, it should be noted that this represents an unrealistic worst-case scenario, as under environmental conditions the concentration of soluble Co2+ and Al3+ ions released is negligible.

Cobalt

Data regarding the toxicity of cobalt to soil microorganisms are limited. The WHO CICAD (2006) reports on a study on the effects of several metals, including cobalt, at single concentrations on respiration of native soil microflora in soil/litter microcosms. A 1362 mg/L solution of cobalt mixed into the soil and litter in the microcosm resulted in a reduction in respiration of 23% after 20 d.

References: World Health Organization (2006). Concise International Chemical Assessment Document 69. COBALT AND INORGANIC COBALT COMPOUNDS.