Phenol, 4-nonyl-, branched

Sediment toxicity

Description of key information

Bettinetti and Provini (2002) provided 28 day EC10 = 231 mg/kg dw based on emergence.  This value is the mean of two test results (203 and 259 mg/kg) dw.

Key value for chemical safety assessment

EC10, LC10 or NOEC for freshwater sediment:

231 mg/kg sediment dw

EC10, LC10 or NOEC for marine water sediment:

61.5 mg/kg sediment dw

Additional information

A review of reports for nonylphenol exposure to sediment organisms resulted in selection of two reliable studies that included two freshwater organisms and one marine organism.  The study of nonylphenol exposure to Chironomus riparius andTubifix tubifix in spiked sediment tests by Bettinetti and Provini (2002) was selected as the key study because it provided calculated EC₁₀concentrations for endpoints derived from duplicate tests for more than one sediment organism. The EC₁₀concentration is accepted as an equivalent substitute for the NOEC value, and has the added benefit of being a calculated response-based concentration rather than an estimate derived from the treatment dilution series. The average EC₁₀concentration reported in the key study for inhibition of Chironomus riparius emergence was 231 nonylphenol/Kg dw, which was comparable to an average EC₁₀concentration of 360 and 359 mg nonylphenol/Kg dw for production of cocoons and production of young worms, respectively, for Tubifix tubifix (Bettinetti and Provini 2002).  

 

In supporting documents, the 28 -day NOEC for Leptocheirus plumulosus, a marine benthic crustacean, survival and reproduction from exposure to nonylphenol was reported by Zulkosky et al. (2002) to be >61.5 mg nonylphenol/Kg dw for both endpoints.