Registration Dossier

Diss Factsheets

Environmental fate & pathways

Endpoint summary

Administrative data

Description of key information

Additional information

Alpha olefin sulfonates, including the registered substance Sulfonic acids, C14-16 (even numbered)-alkane hydroxy and C14-16 (even numbered)-alkene, sodium salts, are essentially non-volatile, and the atmospheric photodegradation is negligible. Furthermore, they are stable to hydrolysis under environmental conditions. The surfactant is rapidly and completely biodegraded in sewage treatment under aerobic conditions, and can be considered as readily biodegradable according to OECD criteria. An experimentally derived Log Pow is available for the substance indicating no bioaccumulation potential. Experimentally derived partition coefficients for sediment-water are only available for similar substances with chain lengths of 12. For C12-AOS the Koc was 0.65. EPI Suite calculations on Koc resulted in higher values with a Koc of 1.6.

The substance will mainly move towards the aqueous compartment. Modelling environmental partitioning based on fugacity models (e. g. Mackay level I-III) does not seem to be appropriate for surfactants.