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Environmental fate & pathways

Biodegradation in water: screening tests

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Link to relevant study record(s)

Description of key information

Two studies on readily biodegradability (Richterich, 1989; Kravetz, 1991)  are included in this dossier. The study by Richterich is a closed bottle test that indicated a biodegrdation of 75% of ThOD over a 30-day period. The study by Kravetz is a CO2-evolution study that shows 85-92% degradation In both tests no  information on the 10-day window is available. It can be concluded that the test substance is rapidly biodegradable.

Several studies indicating that the test substance is completely biodegradable under anaerobic conditions are available (Birch, 1989; Gartiser, 2006;Kobayashi, 1989; Battersby, 1988, Stefan 2006). The key study for anaerobic degradation (Birch, 1989) is performed according to the methods as described under OECD 311.

Key value for chemical safety assessment

Biodegradation in water:
readily biodegradable

Additional information

In addition to the results of the available studies in this dossier, that clearly show rapid biodegradation of the test substance under aerobic conditions, OECD 301 indicates that the test substance can be used as positive control substance in the tests for ready biodegradability. To data the test substance has indeed been used as positive control in many biodegradation tests with the expected result of readily biodegradability. This strenghthens the overall conclusion that the test substance is readily biodegradable under aerobic conditions.

The studies on anaerobic biodegradation clearly indicate that also under anaerobic conditions the test substance degrads rapidly.