Registration Dossier

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Please be aware that this old REACH registration data factsheet is no longer maintained; it remains frozen as of 19th May 2023.

The new ECHA CHEM database has been released by ECHA, and it now contains all REACH registration data. There are more details on the transition of ECHA's published data to ECHA CHEM here.

Diss Factsheets

Ecotoxicological information

Endpoint summary

Administrative data

Description of key information

Additional information

The results of aquatic toxicity tests that have been conducted on enzyme preparation by others demonstrate that they are not very toxic to aquatic organisms including daphnids. For example, HERA (HERA, 2005. Human and Environmental Risk Assessment on ingredients of household cleaning products) conducted a risk assessment on three very different classes of enzymes( enzyme preparations of alpha amylase, cellulase and lipase) commonly found in household products. EC50 values for daphnids ranged from 450 to greater than 1,000 mg/L.

Algae growth inhibition tends to be the most sensitive aquatic endpoint reported for enzyme preparations in the literature with EC50 concentrations ranging from 99 to >1,000 mg/L (HERA, 2005). However, the published data support that enzyme preparations are not highly inhibitory to the growth of aquatic algae.

Again, interpretation of test results is complicated due the fact that enzyme preparations are mixtures. It should be noted that enzymes are produced through a fermentation process where micronutrients which are important to the growth of the bacteria and fungal species producing the enzymes are the same nutrients that are likely to impact the growth of algae. This raises complications in the interpretation of the results and calls into question the applicability of a algal growth inhibition design for testing enzyme preparations which are likely to contain similar micronutrients that are in the growth media for the algal controls. In summary, previous aquatic toxicity studies have 1) demonstrated that enzyme preparations are not appreciably toxic to aquatic life and 2) the test designs of the current study protocols were not developed to handle complex mixtures like enzyme preparations.