home    about    browse    search    latest    help 
Login | Create Account

Acute toxicity of birch tar oil on aquatic organisms

Hagner, Marleena; Penttinen, Olli-Pekka; Pasanen, Tiina; Tiilikkala, Kari and Setälä, Heikki (2010) Acute toxicity of birch tar oil on aquatic organisms. Agricultural and Food Science, 19 (1), pp. 24-33.

[thumbnail of hagner1.pdf]
Preview
PDF - Published Version - English
725kB

Document available online at: http://www.mtt.fi/afs/pdf/mtt-afs-v19n1p24.pdf


Summary

Birch tar oil (BTO) is a by-product of processing birch wood in a pyrolysis system. Accumulating evidence suggests the suitability of BTO as a biocide or repellent in terrestrial environments for the control of weeds, insects, molluscs and rodents. Once applied as biocide, BTO may end up, either through run-off or leaching, in aquatic systems and may have adverse effects on non-target organisms. As very little is known about the toxicity of BTO to aquatic organisms, the present study investigated acute toxicity (LC50/EC50) of BTO for eight aquatic organisms. Bioassays with the Asellus aquaticus (crustacean), Lumbriculus variegatus (oligochaeta worm), Daphnia magna (crustacean), Lymnea sp. (mollusc), Lemna minor (vascular plant), Danio rerio (fish), Scenedesmus gracilis (algae), and Vibrio fischeri (bacterium) were performed according to ISO, OECD or USEPA-guidelines. The results indicated that BTO was practically nontoxic to most aquatic organisms as the median effective BTO concentrations against most organisms were >150 mg L-1. In conclusion, our toxicity tests showed that aquatic organisms are to some extent, invariably sensitive to birch tar oil, but suggest that BTO does not pose a severe hazard to aquatic biota. We deduce that, unless BTOs are not applied in the immediate vicinity of water bodies, no special precaution is required


EPrint Type:Journal paper
Keywords:acute toxicity test, aquatic organisms, birch tar oil, biocide, EC50
Subjects: Environmental aspects
Research affiliation: Finland > Univ. Helsinki
Finland > Luke Natural Resources Institute
ISSN:1795-1895
Deposited By: Koistinen, Riitta
ID Code:16886
Deposited On:23 Mar 2010 10:22
Last Modified:12 Apr 2010 07:43
Document Language:English
Status:Published
Refereed:Peer-reviewed and accepted

Repository Staff Only: item control page

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics