TOXICITY OF EXPLOSIVES AND RELATED-COMPOUNDS TO THE LUMINESCENT BACTERIUM VIBRIO-FISCHERI NRRL-B-11177

Aqueous samples containing various explosives, their reduced metabolit es, as well as related compounds were subjected to the luminescent bac terium Vibrio fischeri NRRL-B-11177 to determine their ecotoxicologica l potential. As the most important parameter, the EC(50) values of 24 test compounds were calculated. The EC(50) value means the concentrati on of a chemical compound that is needed to reduce bacterial luminesce nce by 50%. According to the widely accepted classification scheme of Strupp et al. (1990) and in consideration of an incubation period of 3 0 min (Deutsche Einheitsverfahren zur Wasser-, Abwasser-, und Schlammu ntersuchung-Testverfahren mit Wasserorganismen; Gruppe L; DIN 38412, L 34; DEV 1991) TNT, 26DNT, 2A6NT, 4A2NT, 34DNT, TNB, TNBA, TETRYL and H EXYL must be classified in the category ''very toxic to aquatic organi sms''; 2A46DNT, 4A26DNT, 24DA6NT, 24DNT, 2A4NT, RDX, HMX and PETN must be classified in the category ''toxic to aquatic organisms''; and 26D A4NT, TAT, TNPh, 26DAT, 24DAT, HMT and NQ can be classified in the cat egory ''less toxic to aquatic organisms''. ECS, values after 30, 60, a nd 90 min of incubation of the test compounds are presented and discus sed. For many of the compounds tested in this study, there are no, or only a few, toxicological data in the literature available.