Worldwide Occurrence of Organotins from Antifouling Paints and Effects in the Aquatic Environment - Antifouling Paint Biocides - page 91

TBT and TPT are very toxic to aquatic life as demonstrated by numer-
ous acute toxicity studies in a variety of marine and freshwater organisms.
Data are reviewed in [3, 7, 131], and recent data support the high toxici-
ties. For instance, growth was impaired in a polychaete exposed to TBT
at concentrations often found in sediments (190 ng g -1 sediment) [155, 156]
indicating that benthic organisms are affected similarly. Chronic toxicity
has been observed in marine molluscs at low levels, but in general only
a few species were analyzed. Other sensitive marine species including algae
and zooplankton show acute and chronic effects at concentrations of a few
100 ng L -1 or less [4]. Acute effects are reported at levels above 420 ng L -1 ,and
chronic values for four invertebrate species ranged from 14-131 ng L -1 [95].
Chronic values for freshwater species (cladoceran and fish) ranged from
137-253 ng L -1 . Table 2 compiles some selected toxicity data.
Whereas most sensitive algae and invertebrates are affected at a few
100 ng L -1 , the acute toxicity of TBT in fish lies in the range of a few

gL -1 .
The chronic toxicity is lower, however. Effects on the immune system and his-
tological alterations in many tissues are found below 1

µ

gL -1 [157]. TPT has µ

Table 2 Toxicity of TBT to selected sensitive aquatic biota

TBT ( µ gL -1 ) Organism Toxicity efs.

Acute toxicity
Algae Diatoms EC 50 , 72 h 0.3-0.4 [199]

N. oculata EC 50 , 24 h 0.258 [101]

Zooplankton Arcartia tonsa LC 50 , 6 d 0.4 [200]

Amphipod Gammarus LC 50 , 96 h 1.3 [157]

Molluscs Oyster C. virginica LC 50 , 48 h 1.3 [201]

Clam M. mercenaria LC 50 , 48 h 1.1 [201]

Crustaceae Mysid shrimp LC 50 , 96 h 0.3 [202]

Fish Minnows P. p h o x i n u s LC 100 , 8 d 3.5 [127]

Trout O. mykiss fry LC 100 10-12 d 5 [203]

Chronic toxicity
Algae Diatoms growth 0.1 [204]

Zooplankton Arcartia tonsa death, 144 h 0.3 [200]

Amphipod Gammarus 24 d 0.53 [157]

Molluscs Oyster C. gigas LC 100 , 12 d 0.18 [153]

spat growth 0.01 [205]

Mytilus edulis larvae LC 50 , 15 d 0.04 [206]

Gastropods Nucella lapillus imposex 0.002 [9]

Fish Minnows P. p h o x i n u s histology 0.7 [127]

Guppy P. reticulata immune system 0.4 [207]