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Please be aware that this old REACH registration data factsheet is no longer maintained; it remains frozen as of 19th May 2023.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

Ecotoxicological information

Toxicity to aquatic algae and cyanobacteria

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Administrative data

Link to relevant study record(s)

Description of key information

The acute toxicity of hydrogen peroxide to algae was tested in marine and freshwater species in accordance with international guidelines. The study on the marine diatom Skeletonema costatum (Knight et al. 1997) is more reliable than the study on the greenalga Chlorella vulgaris (Walzer and Lotz 1991). The reliable algae study on the marine diatom produced a NOEC value of 0.63 mg/L, which is based on growth rate inhibition.

Key value for chemical safety assessment

Additional information

Effects of hydrogen peroxide to primary producers were investigated in numerous freshwater algal species and, in addition, in two marine diatoms. Most of the data is from the public domain, summarising the findings from experiments conducted with a scientific background rather than gearing to registration requirements. Therefore, the test methods are often not in compliance with standard methods and the set-ups are not optimised for EC50 or NOEC value calculation. Despite these technical limitations, the findings are considered quite consistent with no indication of significant differences in the sensitivity of freshwater and marine species. It is considered a reasonable approach to use the endpoint for the risk assessment that was derived from the test most closely approaching the standard test guidelines, i.e., the NOEC of 0.63 mg/L in the marine diatom Skeletonema costatum was considered in the calculation of the PNEC aquatic.