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Please be aware that this old REACH registration data factsheet is no longer maintained; it remains frozen as of 19th May 2023.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

Environmental fate & pathways

Endpoint summary

Administrative data

Description of key information

Lactic acid will be present predominantly in aqueous compartments, will not bioaccumulate or bioconcentrate, and is rapidly biodegraded, therefore not persistent.

Additional information

Lactic acid will be present predominantly in aqueous compartments, will not bioaccumulate or bioconcentrate, and is rapidly biodegraded, therefore not persistent.

Physico-chemical properties of enantiomers are essentially identical, except for those dependent on a chiral environment (e.g. rotation of plane of polarization of polarized light, i.e. optical activity). See e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enantiomer. Most if not all environmental fate processes take place in a non-chiral or 'racemic' environment, and thus will not discriminate between enantiomers. L- and D-lactic acid are both ubiquitous constituents of biological systems and are produced and metabolized a.o. by many bacteria. As such, both L- and D-lactic acid are completely biodegradable. Therefore, data for L-lactic acid are fully valid for D-lactic acid., and hence for general lactic acid.