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EC number: 233-899-5 | CAS number: 10421-48-4
- Life Cycle description
- Uses advised against
- Endpoint summary
- Appearance / physical state / colour
- Melting point / freezing point
- Boiling point
- Density
- Particle size distribution (Granulometry)
- Vapour pressure
- Partition coefficient
- Water solubility
- Solubility in organic solvents / fat solubility
- Surface tension
- Flash point
- Auto flammability
- Flammability
- Explosiveness
- Oxidising properties
- Oxidation reduction potential
- Stability in organic solvents and identity of relevant degradation products
- Storage stability and reactivity towards container material
- Stability: thermal, sunlight, metals
- pH
- Dissociation constant
- Viscosity
- Additional physico-chemical information
- Additional physico-chemical properties of nanomaterials
- Nanomaterial agglomeration / aggregation
- Nanomaterial crystalline phase
- Nanomaterial crystallite and grain size
- Nanomaterial aspect ratio / shape
- Nanomaterial specific surface area
- Nanomaterial Zeta potential
- Nanomaterial surface chemistry
- Nanomaterial dustiness
- Nanomaterial porosity
- Nanomaterial pour density
- Nanomaterial photocatalytic activity
- Nanomaterial radical formation potential
- Nanomaterial catalytic activity
- Endpoint summary
- Stability
- Biodegradation
- Bioaccumulation
- Transport and distribution
- Environmental data
- Additional information on environmental fate and behaviour
- Ecotoxicological Summary
- Aquatic toxicity
- Endpoint summary
- Short-term toxicity to fish
- Long-term toxicity to fish
- Short-term toxicity to aquatic invertebrates
- Long-term toxicity to aquatic invertebrates
- Toxicity to aquatic algae and cyanobacteria
- Toxicity to aquatic plants other than algae
- Toxicity to microorganisms
- Endocrine disrupter testing in aquatic vertebrates – in vivo
- Toxicity to other aquatic organisms
- Sediment toxicity
- Terrestrial toxicity
- Biological effects monitoring
- Biotransformation and kinetics
- Additional ecotoxological information
- Toxicological Summary
- Toxicokinetics, metabolism and distribution
- Acute Toxicity
- Irritation / corrosion
- Sensitisation
- Repeated dose toxicity
- Genetic toxicity
- Carcinogenicity
- Toxicity to reproduction
- Specific investigations
- Exposure related observations in humans
- Toxic effects on livestock and pets
- Additional toxicological data
Ecotoxicological Summary
Administrative data
Hazard for aquatic organisms
Freshwater
- Hazard assessment conclusion:
- PNEC aqua (freshwater)
- PNEC value:
- 0.024 mg/L
- Assessment factor:
- 10
- Extrapolation method:
- assessment factor
- PNEC freshwater (intermittent releases):
- 0.24 mg/L
Marine water
- Hazard assessment conclusion:
- PNEC aqua (marine water)
- PNEC value:
- 0.002 mg/L
- Assessment factor:
- 100
- Extrapolation method:
- assessment factor
STP
- Hazard assessment conclusion:
- PNEC STP
- PNEC value:
- 500 mg/L
- Assessment factor:
- 1
- Extrapolation method:
- assessment factor
Sediment (freshwater)
- Hazard assessment conclusion:
- PNEC sediment (freshwater)
- PNEC value:
- 0.2 mg/kg sediment dw
- Extrapolation method:
- equilibrium partitioning method
Sediment (marine water)
- Hazard assessment conclusion:
- PNEC sediment (marine water)
- PNEC value:
- 0.02 mg/kg sediment dw
- Extrapolation method:
- equilibrium partitioning method
Hazard for air
Air
- Hazard assessment conclusion:
- no hazard identified
Hazard for terrestrial organisms
Soil
- Hazard assessment conclusion:
- PNEC soil
- PNEC value:
- 0.026 mg/kg soil dw
- Extrapolation method:
- equilibrium partitioning method
Hazard for predators
Secondary poisoning
- Hazard assessment conclusion:
- no potential for bioaccumulation
Additional information
- pH is low (<5) very specialised ecosystems e.g. acidophiles in sulfuric pools and geysers, areas receiving acidic mine drainage
- iron concentration is high (of the order of the apparent E(L)C50values)
- oxygen content is very low
- background concentrations of ferrous iron are low.
- Measured concentrations of ferric chloride and ferric sulfate in influent surface waters to water treatment plants reported in Tables 9.3.7 and 9.4.7 range from <0.07 mg/l to 11 mg/l as Fe.
- An Environmental Quality Standard (EQS) of 1 mg/l for dissolved iron has been published by the United Kingdom Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (Whitehouseet al., 1998). It is relevant to note that if a dilution factor of effluent into receiving water of 10 is assumed (as is the default case in EU technical guidance for risk assessment) the concentration of dissolved iron in an effluent would need to be in the order of 10 to 100 mg Fe/l before this standard was breached.
- The maximum level of iron in drinking water is set EU-wide at 0.2 mg/l (98/83/EC, EU Directive on Potable Water).
It is considered that there are sufficient hazard data available for the required SIDS endpoints for these iron salts when considered as a chemical category. The results of acute laboratory toxicity tests conducted with aquatic species indicate that effects of the salts are observed at nominal exposure concentrations as the salt in the range 1 – 1000 mg/l, with the majority being in the range 10 – 100 mg/l. Chronic effects on aquatic organisms are also observed at nominal concentrations in the range 1 – 1000 mg/l for each individual salt with the majority of the results being > 10 mg/l.
Given the half-life for oxidation and precipitation detailed in section 4.1 it is anticipated that a significant proportion of any ferrous salts added to aqueous test media would have converted to ferric within the timescale of the standard OECD test protocols. The cited LC50, EC50 and NOEC values for all the iron salts significantly exceed the equilibrium concentrations of dissolved ferric iron given in Table 7.2, which are very low values. It is important to note that were these equilibrium concentrations to truly reflect the toxicity of iron in solution they would place it alongside, or more toxic than, some of the most potent toxic chemicals that are known. Such a view could clearly not be sustained given the ubiquity of iron in all its various forms in the environment, in loadings that would yield these apparently toxic concentrations.
It is therefore reasonable to assume that a small proportion of the added iron in the tests will have been present in the form of dissolved iron – the majority being present as precipitated ferric hydroxide. Secondary effects arising from the presence of the precipitate together with possible pH reduction and phosphate precipitation (relevant to plant tests only) are likely to have contributed significantly to the effects observed in the tests. This assumption is substantiated by observations noted in some of the test reports.
Iron salts may present a toxic hazard to environmental species under specific conditions. For example, it is possible that ferrous iron salts could have toxic effects in circumstances where the following conditions apply and persist:
Such conditions would need to result in dissolved iron concentrations in the order of 1 to 10 mg/l and would not be expected to arise from the industrial production and use patterns for these iron salts that are described in Section 2.
Iron species are naturally common throughout the environment. Measured background concentrations and Regulatory Standards for iron provide a useful context for considering the results of this assessment:
The higher background concentrations for surface waters overlap the effect concentrations determined in this assessment. However the standards are protective against those effects occurring.
The physical fouling phenomena, that are believed to be the explanation for the majority of the effects observed in laboratory tests, are still a genuine hazard. They are more likely to occur in the environment under circumstances where significant loads of iron are added. In many natural waters suspended sediments (high in iron content) are already present and resident organisms are adapted to tolerate such conditions. The extent to which organisms will be affected by further additions of iron will be determined by their ecology and physiology – some organisms can tolerate elevated levels of suspended material and surface sediment, others cannot. Responses arising from physical phenomena would not be indicative of a significant chronic hazard.
Responses to effects arising from other secondary factors such as lowered pH and nutrient complexation will also be dependent upon the susceptibility of resident organisms to perturbations in these parameters and the characteristics of the receiving environment (e.g. buffering capacity and background nutrient concentrations). The results of the laboratory tests and the published EQS values again suggest that it would be necessary for dissolved iron concentrations to exceed 1 mg/l before significant effects could be anticipated. Such concentrations are only likely to occur and persist under conditions of low dissolved oxygen concentration and low pH.
Even if the test results reported in this assessment are taken at face value as indicative of toxic effects, it was considered in a recent EU classification of ferrous sulfate heptahydrate and monohydrate that the majority of acute toxicity end points had values > 10 mg/l iron salt and that the reduction of soluble iron concentrations below measured chronic NOECs could be considered as equivalent to ‘rapid degradability’ leading to a ‘no environmental hazard’ classification decision. The GHS proposals would lead to a similar conclusion.
Conclusion on classification
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