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Please be aware that this old REACH registration data factsheet is no longer maintained; it remains frozen as of 19th May 2023.

The new ECHA CHEM database has been released by ECHA, and it now contains all REACH registration data. There are more details on the transition of ECHA's published data to ECHA CHEM here.

Diss Factsheets

Environmental fate & pathways

Endpoint summary

Administrative data

Description of key information

Additional information

The lithium salts of dicarboxylic acids (C6 - C10) are readily biodegradable.

The lithium salts of fatty acids are expected to dissociate to lithium ions and fatty acids. As an inorganic metal, the lithium ion will not undergo biodegradation, however, the fatty acid component will be biodegraded. Adipic acid is readily biodegradable based on publicly available data from five ready biodegradation tests. It is also inherently biodegradable. This supports the conclusions of a risk assessment under the high production volume program that includes the lithium salts of dicarboxylic acids (C6 - C10) as part of a wider aliphatics acids category (CoCAM 2014). The CoCAM report (2014) concludes that 'the weight of evidence indicates that the aliphatics acid category members are readily biodegradable'. They share a common degradation pathway in which they are degraded to acetyl-Co A or other key metabolites in all living systems. Differences in metabolism or biodegradation of even or odd numbered carbon chain compounds are not expected (CoCAM 2014). Furthermore, the fatty acids of the lithium salts of dicarboxylic acids (C6 - C10) are all natural or chemically indistinguishable from naturally derived substances found in food.

Data on the biodegradation of the acids of the other lithium salts of fatty acids (C6-C10) are read across from adipic acid based on structural similarity and also on the conclusions of the CoCAM (2014) report. Therefore, the lithium salts of fatty acids (C6-C10) are all readily biodegradable.

CoCAM. 2014. SIDS initial assessment profile. CoCAM 6 September 30- October 3, 2014