Abstract
Oil spill dispersants contain one or more surface-active agents. The surfactant properties that allow dispersants to work are nonspecific and can also affect the lipid-bilayer membranes of living cells. One important parameter used to characterize the physical behavior of surfactants is the concentration at which dissolved surfactant monomers begin to aggregate—the critical micelle concentration (CMC). The CMC can be toxicologically relevant because toxic effects are generally linked to monomers rather than micelles. The CMCs of four different oil dispersants (Corexit® 9527, Corexit® 7664, Nokomis® 3, and Slik-A-Way®) in seawater were measured using surface tension as the indicative metric. From these data, predicted surface tensions were calculated for NOEC and median-effect concentration estimates obtained with the same dispersants for the early life stages of four marine species. In three of the four agents, toxicity to all four species occurred below the CMC; however, in the fourth, toxicity to three of the species occurred well above the CMC. No biologically significant relationship between surface tension and toxicity was noted.
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Singer, M.M., George, S. & Tjeerdema, R.S. Relationship of some physical properties of oil dispersants and their toxicity to marine organisms. Arch. Environ. Contam. Toxicol. 29, 33–38 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00213084
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00213084