Determination of selected fate and aquatic toxicity characteristics of acrylic acid and a series of acrylic esters

Acrylic acid, methyl acrylate, ethyl acrylate, and butyl acrylate are comme rcially important and widely used materials. This paper reports the results of a series of fare and aquatic toxicity studies. The mobility in soil of acrylic acid and its eaters ranged from 'medium' to 'very high'. Calculated bioconcentration factors ranged from 1 to 37, suggesting a low bioconcentr ation potential. Acrylic acid and methyl acrylate showed limited biodegrada bility in the five day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5) test, while ethyl a crylate and butyl acrylate were degraded easily (77% and 56%, respectively) . Using the OECD method 301D 38-d closed bottle test, degradability for acr ylic acid was 81% at 28 days, while the acrylic esters ranged from 57% to 6 0%. Acrylic acid degraded rapidly to carbon dioxide in soil(t(1/2) <1 day). Toxicity tests were conducted using freshwater and marine fish, invertebra tes, and algae. Acrylic acid effect concentrations for fish and invertebrat es ranged from 27 to 236 mg/l. Effect concentrations (LC50 or EC50) for fis h and invertebrates using methyl acrylate, ethyl acrylate, and butyl acryla te ranged from 1.1 to 8.2 mg/l. The chronic MATC for acrylic acid with Daph nia magna was 27 mg/l based on length and young produced per adult reproduc tion day and for ethyl acrylate was 0.29 mg/l based on both the reproductiv e and growth endpoints. Overall these studies show that acrylic acid and th e acrylic esters studied can rapidly biodegrade, have a low potential for p ersistence or bioaccumulation in the environment, and have low to moderate toxicity. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.