SYMPOSIA PAPER Published: 01 January 1988
STP10306S

Use of Aquatic Lethality Tests to Estimate Safe Toxicant Concentrations for Initial Ecological Risk Assessments

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This article presents an approach which allows the body of comparative toxicity data to be used in initial ecological risk assessments to extrapolate from an acute test with an indicator species to an estimate of the no-effect concentration in the environment. The fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas) acute value was selected as the reference value since this ecotoxicity endpoint has the largest data base for comparative toxicity comparisons. Comparative toxicity endpoints for fish and invertebrates were collected from various sources. When data for all ecotoxicity endpoints are plotted for all chemicals, this plot can be analyzed statistically using regression analysis to calculate an equation defining the upper 95 percentile prediction limit. The upper 95% prediction limit uses the reference test (fathead 96-h acute value) to calculate a concentration that would be safe for 95% of the species and chemicals, assuming that enough comparative toxicological data (especially chronic endpoints) are included in the data set.

Author Information

Holcombe, GW
Environmental Research Laboratory—Duluth, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Duluth, MN
Phipps, GL
Environmental Research Laboratory—Duluth, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Duluth, MN
Veith, GD
Environmental Research Laboratory—Duluth, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Duluth, MN
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Details
Developed by Committee: E47
Pages: 442–458
DOI: 10.1520/STP10306S
ISBN-EB: 978-0-8031-5027-0
ISBN-13: 978-0-8031-1180-6