Alcohols, C12-15-branched and linear

Short-term toxicity to fish

Description of key information

Short-term toxicity to fish: 96 h LL50 100-300 mg/l (WAF) in accordance with test guideline OECD 203 (Oncorhynchus mykiss). 

Additional information

A reliable 96h LL₅₀value of 100-300 mg/L WAFs has been determined for the effects of Alcohols, C12-15, branched and linear on the mortality of the freshwater fish Oncorhynchus.mykiss. The limit of solubility is <1.3 mg/l therefore the LL₅₀ was not achieved at the limit of solubility. This study has been selected as key as it is the best designed and reported study conducted with a test substance difficult to conduct tests with (low solubility and high biodegradability).

Other studies report the LL₅₀ to be >0.8 mg/L (>LoS, limit of solubility), while another study (not conducted with WAFs) determined an LC₅₀ value of 43 mg/L (>LoS).

Discussion of trends in the Category of C6-24 linear and essentially-linear aliphatic alcohols:

Linear LCAAs

The data summarised in Table 7.1 show that the toxicity of the single carbon number chain length LCAAs increases from an LC₅₀ of 97 mg/L for C6 to 1.0 mg/L for C12. At higher carbon number chain lengths there is an absence of short-term toxicity (LC₅₀ values are reported as being greater than the highest test concentration or higher than the water solubility of the test substance) and this is explained by the water solubility of an LCAA limiting its bioavailability, such that a toxic concentration for short-term exposure is not achieved.

The results of a 7-day, semi-static toxicity test with 1-octanol using Pimephales promelas larvae aged 1, 4 and 7 days at the start of the study have also been reported by (Pickering et al., 1996) but are not included in the table. NOECs based on nominal concentrations were 1.5-11.9 mg/L for survival. Measured concentrations in the test were reduced to non-detectable levels in most test vessels in the old media. The poor maintenance of exposure concentrations means that the reported NOEC values are almost certainly underestimates of the true toxicity of the substance. The results of this test are also discussed later with respect to long-term toxicity.

Multi-constituent LCAAs

The data for multi-constituent substances of different carbon chain length LCAAs (commercial products) are shown in Table 7.2. The results show that substances containing LCAAs with carbon numbers in the ranges of C8-10 and C6-12 exert short-term toxic effects at concentrations of between 0.7 and 10 mg/L. At these concentrations all the constituents are likely to have been fully dissolved.

In contrast, multi-constituent substances - Alcohols, C12-13; Alcohols, C12-13-branched and linear and Alcohols, C12-15-branched and linear - exhibited effects at loading rates where not all constituents were fully dissolved. Under such circumstances the presence of retained undissolved test material, such as occurred in the Shell Toxicology Laboratory (1978a) test, opens up the possibility for physical fouling of the test organism and this needs to be kept in mind when interpreting the result. The multi-constituent substances containing LCAAs with carbon chain length C12 and above did not exhibit short-term toxicity effects at loading rates where the solubility of the constituent LCAAs was exceeded.

The data for nonanol, branched and linear, decanol branched and linear, decanol branched and undecanol branched alcohols, have been read-across from their linear alcohols counterparts (C9, C10 and C11) since they are essentially linear alcohols.

Alcohols, C14-15 ecotoxicity assessment is based on weight of evidence from two studies; Bridie et al. 1973 and Shell Toxicology Lab (1978). Both studies report the LC₅₀ to be above the limit of solubility. The Bridieet al. study tested the toxicity of the substance via the WAF preparation method (the preferred method of testing with poorly soluble mixtures) however it does not report complete information on the study methods and conditions. The Shell Toxicology Lab (1978) did not utilise WAF methods but it is reported more comprehensively.

The results for both single carbon number LCAAs and the multi-constituent substances indicate that, for fish, there is a short-term toxicity cut-off for LCAAs with carbon numbers >C14.

The lowest reliable LC₅₀ values determined in tests with single carbon chain length LCAAs are shown in the following table. 

Table 7.1: Key fish short-term toxicity studies on single carbon chain length linear LCAAs.

CAS	Chemical Name	Comments	Water solubility (mg/L)	Species	Method/ Guideline	Exposure regime	Endpoint	Value (mg/L)^1,2	Reliability code	Reference
111-27-3	1-Hexanol		5900 at 20°C	promelas	US EPA 1975	Flow-through	96 h LC50	97 (m)	2	Veith, Call and Brooke, 1983a,b
111-70-6	1-Heptanol	Supporting	1300 at 20°C	Pimephales promelas	ASTM 1980	Flow-through	96 h LC50	38 (m)	2	Broderius and Kahl, 1985
111-87-5	1-Octanol		550 at 25°C	Pimephales promelas	ASTM 1980	Flow-through	96 h LC50	13 (m)	2	Veith, Call and Brooke, 1983a,b; Brookeet al., 1984; Broderius and Kahl, 1985
143-08-8	1-Nonanol		130 at 20 °C	Pimephales promelas	ASTM 1980	Flow-through	96 h LC50	5.5 (m)	2	Broderius and Kahl, 1985
112-30-1	1-Decanol		40	Danio rerio(embryo)	OECD TG 236	Flow-through	120 h LC50	3.4 (m)	1	Wildlife International, 2015b
112-30-1	1-Decanol		40	Pimephales promelas	US EPA 1975	Flow-through	96 h LC50	2.3 (m)	2	Veith, Call and Brooke, 1983a,b; Brookeet al., 1984
112-42-5	1-Undecanol		8.0 at 20°C	Pimephales promelas	US EPA 1975	Flow-through	96 h LC50	1.0 (m)	2	Veith, Call and Brooke, 1983a,b
112-53-8	1-Dodecanol		1.9 at 20°C	Pimephales promelas	US EPA 1975	Flow-through	96 h LC50	1.0 (m)	2	Veith, Call and Brooke, 1983a,b
112-70-9	1-Tridecanol	Supporting	0.38 at 20°C	Pimephales promelas	US EPA 1975	Flow-through	96 h LC50	>0.33 (m)	2	Veith, Call and Brooke, 1983a,b
112-72-1	1-Tetradecanol		0.19 at 25°C	Salmo gairdneri i^3	OECD 203	Semi-static	96 h LC50	>1 (n) (>LoS)	2	Wetton, 1996b
36653-82-4	1-Hexadecanol		0.013 at 25°C	Salmo gairdneri^3	OECD 203	Semi-static	96 h LC50	>0.4 (n) (>LoS)	2	Wetton, 1996c
112-92-5	1-Octadecanol		0.0011 at 25°C	Salmo gairdneri^3	OECD 203	Semi-static	96 h LC50	>0.4 (n) (>LoS)	2	Wetton, 1996d
661-19-8	1-Docosanol		approx. 0.001 (estimate)	Oncorhynchus mykiss	OECD 203	Semi-static	96 h LC50	>1000 (n) (>LoS)	2	Wetton, 2000

Notes:

1 >LoS: concentration/Loading rate greater than the limit of water solubility

2 (n) based on nominal concentrations, (m) based on measured concentrations.

3 Now known as Oncorhynchus mykiss. The names used in the study reports are given here.

 

The lowest reliable LC₅₀ values determined in tests with multiconstituent carbon chain length LCAAs are shown in the following table.

 Table 7.2: Fish short-term toxicity studies on mixed carbon chain length LCAAs.

CAS #	Chemical name	Comments^1	Water solubility (mg/L)	Species	Method/ Guideline^2	Exposure regime	Endpoint	Value (mg/L)^3	Reliability code	Reference
n/a	Alcohols, C7-9		510 at a loading rate of 1000 mg/L (estimated)	I. idus^4	Not specified	Static	96 h LC50	0.7-0.8 (n)	2	Reiff, 1978
67762-41-8	Alcohols, C8-10	Type C SUPPORTING	2.4 at 25°C	Salmo gairdneri^4andLepomis macrochirus	EPA 1975	Static	96 h LC50	6.5-10 (n)	2	EG&G Bionomics, 1975
n/a	Alcohols, C9-11- branched and linear	Also valid for Alcohols, C9-11 CAS 66455-17-2	44 at a loading rate of 1000 mg/L. (estimated)	S. gairdneri^4	Not specified	Static	96 h LC50	6.3-10 (n)	2	Shell Toxicology Laboratory, 1979
n/a	Alcohols, C9-11- branched and linear	Also valid for Alcohols, C9-11 CAS 66455-17-2	44 at a loading rate of 1000 mg/L. (estimated)	Scopthalmus maximus(marine species)	Not specified	Semi-static	96 h LC50	5.8 (n)	2	Huntingdon Life Sciences Ltd., 1991d
68515-81-1	Nonanol, branched and linear		121 (estimated)	Pimephales promelas	ASTM 1980	Flow-through	96 h LC50	5.5 (m)	2	Broderius and Kahl, 1985
								(r-a from C9)
90342-32-8	Decanol, branched and linear		26.17 at 20°C	P. promelas	US EPA 1975	Flow-through	96 h LC50	2.3 (m)	2	Veith, Call and Brooke, 1983a,b; Brookeet al., 1984
								(r-a from C10)
128973-77-3	Undecanol, branched and linear   Reaction mass of 2-methyldecan-1-ol and 2-propyloctan-1-ol and 2-ethylnonan-1-ol and 2-butylheptan-1-ol		6.3 at 25°C	P. promelas	US EPA 1975	Flow-through	96 h LC50	1.0 (m)	2	Veith, Call and Brooke, 1983a,b
								(r-a from C11)
75782-87-5	Alcohols, C12-13		2.4 at 25^oC	S. gairdneri^4	Not specified	Static	96 h LC50	4.0-10 (>LoS)	2	Shell Toxicology Laboratory, 1978a
75782-87-5	Alcohols, C12-13		2.4 at 25^oC	S. maximus(marine species)	Not specified	Semi-static	96 h LC50	10 (n) (>LoS)	2	Huntingdon Life Sciences Ltd., 1991c
740817-83-8	Alcohols, C12-13-branched and linear		2.9-3.1 at 20°C	Brachydanio rerio	OECD 203 WAF	Semi-static	96-hr LL50	15 (n) (>LoS)	1	TNO, 2000a
90604-40-3	Alcohols, C12-15-branched and linear		0.80 at 20°C	Oncorhynchus mykiss	OECD 203 WAF	Semi-Static	96 h LL50	100-300 (n) (>LoS)	1	Eadsforth, Palmer and Cann, 2000
68855-56-1	Alcohols, C 12-16	Type B	0.80 at 20°C	O. mykiss	Not specified	Static	96 h LC50	57 (n) (>LoS)	2	Huntingdon Life Sciences 1996i
		SUPPORTING
80206-82-2	Alcohols, C 12-14	not possible to determine compositional type	approx. 4 predicted at 1000 mg/L loading rate	L. idus	OECD 203	Static	48 h LC50	>5000 (n) (>LoS)	2	Henkel, 1999m
		SUPPORTING
75782-87-5	Alcohols, C14-15		0.7 at 20°C and 0.15 at a loading rate of 1000 mg/L. (estimated)	S. gairdneri^4	Not specified	Static	96 h LC50	>500 (n) (>LoS)	2	Shell Toxicology Lab 1978b
				Carassius auratus	ASTM D 1345	Static	96 h LL50	>0.7 (n)	2	Bridieet al., 1973
								(>LoS)
68002-94-8	Alcohols, C 16-18 and 18 Unsaturated	SUPPORTING	0.0404 predicted at 1000 mg/L loading rate	L. idus	OECD 203	Static	48 h LC50	>10000 (>LoS)	2	Henkel, 1999o

Notes:

1 Compositional Types are described in section 1.4.7 of the category report.

2 WAF denotes test medium was a water-accommodated fraction      

3 >LoS: LC₅₀ observed was greater than the limit of solubility of at least some constituents of the substance. (n) based on nominal concentrations, (m) basedon measured concentrations.

4 Now known as Oncorhynchus mykiss. The names used in the study reports are given here.