Lewis M A
Battelle, Environmental Biology and Assessment, Columbus, Ohio 43201.
Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 1990 Oct;20(2):123-40. doi: 10.1016/0147-6513(90)90052-7.
Surfactants are high volume chemicals used primarily in detergent products and are found in natural waters. The toxic effects of representative surfactants on aquatic life have been determined and summarized in greater detail for animal test species than for aquatic vegetation. This paper summarizes the chronic toxicity levels for algae, an important trophic level in aquatic ecosystems. Toxic effects have been determined for a few commercially important surfactants and primarily for cultured freshwater algae under the controlled conditions of the laboratory where inhibition, and in some cases, stimulation have been observed. The reported toxicities of surfactants have varied widely over several orders of magnitude and the effect levels are compound and species-specific. Species sensitivity can vary as much as three orders of magnitude to the same surfactant and the effects of different surfactants on the same algal species can vary as much as four orders of magnitude. Therefore, data generalizations and extrapolations are difficult but anionic and nonionic surfactants and detergent builders are relatively non-toxic when compared to various cationic monoalkyl and dialkyl quaternary ammonium salts. Recent toxicity studies conducted in the field monitoring the effects of several surfactants used in commercial products on various structural and functional parameters of natural algal communities have shown toxicity to be less in many cases than that predicted from laboratory tests. Furthermore, the field-derived effect levels typically exceed the reported measured environmental levels of the corresponding surfactants indicating the likelihood of no impact. Additional field studies are needed to substantiate this trend for these and other commercially important surfactants particularly for natural saltwater algal assemblages for which the toxicity data base is unavailable.
表面活性剂是主要用于洗涤剂产品的大量化学品，存在于天然水体中。与水生植物相比，对于动物试验物种，已更详细地确定并总结了代表性表面活性剂对水生生物的毒性作用。本文总结了藻类（水生生态系统中一个重要营养级）的慢性毒性水平。已在实验室控制条件下，针对一些商业上重要的表面活性剂确定了毒性作用，主要是针对养殖的淡水藻类，观察到了抑制作用，在某些情况下还观察到了刺激作用。所报道的表面活性剂毒性在几个数量级范围内有很大差异，且影响水平因化合物和物种而异。同一表面活性剂对不同物种的敏感性差异可达三个数量级，不同表面活性剂对同一藻类物种的影响差异可达四个数量级。因此，数据归纳和推断很困难，但与各种阳离子单烷基和二烷基季铵盐相比，阴离子和非离子表面活性剂以及洗涤剂助剂的毒性相对较低。最近在野外进行的毒性研究监测了商业产品中使用的几种表面活性剂对天然藻类群落各种结构和功能参数的影响结果表明，在许多情况下毒性低于实验室测试预测的毒性。此外，野外得出的影响水平通常超过所报道的相应表面活性剂的实测环境水平，这表明不太可能产生影响。需要进行更多野外研究来证实这些和其他商业上重要的表面活性剂的这一趋势，特别是对于没有毒性数据库的天然咸水藻类组合。
