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Environmental fate & pathways

Endpoint summary

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Description of key information

Lithium salts are not considered to bioaccumulate.

Additional information

Lithium salts are not considered to bioaccumulate. The anionic part of the lithium salts is either natural or chemically indistinguishable from natural substances. Anionic parts like carbonate, chloride or nitrate can be found ubiquitous in nature. Thus, only data on the bioaccumulation potential of the lithium component are presented here. The highest BCF/BAF was determined by Antonkiewicz et al. (2017) for terrestrial plants under hydroponic conditions with values between 9 and 16 over the different dosing groups. Barber et al (2006) determined a BCF of around 8 L/kg in freshwater fish. Other publications indicate BCF/BAF values of 1 (Karlsson et al. 2002) or below 1 (Pokorska et al., 2012). Kastanek (2015) concluded in his study with three different algae species that the bioaccumulation potential of lithium is neglible.

Recalculation of the highest BAF/BCF values of the evaluated literature resulted in a BCF of 79 L/kg and a BAF of 159 for lithium nitrate. Thus, lithium nitrate is not considered as bioaccumulative.