Terrestrial Bioaccumulation Potential of Phenolic Compounds

Abstract

ABSTRACT

An assessment of terrestrial bioaccumulation was made for phenol and chlorophenols using literature information. Most of the available data for the chemicals related to their aquatic bioaccumulation potential and both terrestrial and aquatic data were used for the assessment.

Of the phenolic compounds evaluated, quantitative fish bioconcentration data (BCF) were available only for 13. The evaluation indicated that: (a) the BCF value for a specific chemical depended on the type of fish being evaluated, varying by about three orders of magnitude for some chemicals, and (b) for most fish types, the BCF values were correlated positively to the octanol water partition coefficient (K_OW) and were negatively correlated with aqueous solubility.

Based on interpretation of the available information, subjective judgments of the bioaccumulation potential of the designated chemicals were made. Eleven of these chemicals may bioaccumulate in terrestrial or aquatic organisms. These were judged to be: 2-chlorophenol, 4-chlorophenol, 2, 4-dichlorophenol, 2,4,5-trichlorophenol, 2,4, 6-trichlorophenol, 2, 3, 4,6-tetrachlorophenol, pentachlorophenol, p-nitrophenol, 4,6-dinitro-o-cresol, p-chloro-m-cresol, and 2, 4-dimethylphenol. The logic for these judgments is presented. Such subjective judgements do not take the place of actual data but they can provide a guide to identify which chemicals may bioaccumulate to regulators and the public who desire insight into the relative magnitude of the bioaccumulation problem.