Elsevier

Chemosphere

Volume 45, Issues 4–5, November 2001, Pages 471-486
Chemosphere

Derivation of ambient water quality criteria for formaldehyde

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0045-6535(01)00061-3Get rights and content

Abstract

This paper describes the derivation of aquatic life water quality criteria for formaldehyde, developed in accordance with United States Environmental Protection Agency's (USEPA's) Guidelines for Deriving Numerical National Water Quality Criteria for the Protection of Aquatic Organisms and Their Uses. The initial step in deriving water quality criteria was to conduct an extensive literature search to assemble available acute and chronic toxicity data for formaldehyde. The literature search identified a large amount of information on acute toxicity of formaldehyde to fish and aquatic invertebrates. These acute data were evaluated with respect to data quality, and poor quality or uncertain data were excluded from the data base. The resulting data base met the USEPA requirements for criteria derivation by having data for at least one species in at least eight different taxonomic families. One shortcoming of the literature-derived data base, however, was that few studies involved analytical confirmation of nominal formaldehyde concentrations and reported toxicity endpoints. Also, there were relatively few data on chronic toxicity. The acute toxicity data set consisted of data for 12 species of fish, 3 species of amphibians, and 11 species of invertebrates. These data were sufficient, according to USEPA guidelines, to calculate a final acute value (FAV) of 9.15 mg/l, and an acute aquatic life water quality criterion (one-half the FAV) of 4.58 mg/l. A final acute–chronic ratio (ACR) was calculated using available chronic toxicity data and USEPA-recommended conservative default assumptions to account for missing data. Using the FAV and the final ACR (5.69), the final chronic aquatic life water quality criterion was determined to be 1.61 mg/l.

Introduction

Formaldehyde is common in the environment. For example, certain natural chemicals (terpenes and isoprene) emitted by plants react to form formaldehyde, and formaldehyde is formed in the early stages of plant decomposition (WHO, 1989). Rain water contains 0.11–0.174 mg/l formaldehyde, with peaks as high as 0.31–1.38 mg/l (Kitchens et al., 1976; Howard, 1990). There is natural formaldehyde in raw food (WHO, 1989), and it is a normal metabolite in the human body (Casteel and Baily, 1987).

Formaldehyde has a variety of uses in many industries, including use in resins and as a sterilant. Formaldehyde is also permitted as an indirect food additive (FDA, 1986). Formaldehyde is also used in a number of drug and dental products, including mouthwash, toothpaste, and foot powder. Formaldehyde is also used in fish hatcheries to control external parasites of fish (Piper and Smith, 1973). Despite its widespread use, there are currently no national ambient water quality criteria for formaldehyde.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) publishes and periodically updates ambient water quality criteria pursuant to Section 304(a)(1) of the Clean Water Act. The methodology used for calculating national ambient water quality criteria is described in Guidelines for Deriving Numerical National Water Quality Criteria for the Protection of Aquatic Organisms and Their Uses (50 CFR 307922, 29 July 1985) (Stephan et al., 1985). These guidelines describe an objective, internally consistent, appropriate, and feasible way of developing national water quality criteria. The guidelines were developed on the theory that effects which occur on a species in appropriate laboratory tests will generally occur on the same species in comparable field conditions. Currently, these guidelines are the basis for ambient water quality criteria for over 125 compounds (USEPA, 1999). This report summarizes the data necessary to develop ambient water quality criteria as specified by USEPA guidelines (Stephan et al., 1985).

The formaldehyde data presented in this report was collected through an extensive literature search, which included on-line computer data bases and review of available literature, including existing reviews of formaldehyde toxicity (e.g., Kitchens et al., 1976, Timmer, 1986, WHO, 1989).

Section snippets

Methods

The acute and chronic toxicity data for formaldehyde were evaluated to determine whether the data met the qualifications for data usability as defined in the USEPA (Stephan et al., 1985) guidance. Specifically, the data were screened to determine their usability based on the following criteria:

Acute toxicity to freshwater aquatic animals

This section presents a summary of acute toxicity data for formaldehyde, and includes data gathered from the existing literature and supplemental data generated by Cooney and Bourgoin (2001). The majority of the available data from the literature are not considered for use in calculating ambient water quality criteria because they do not meet the data requirements established by USEPA (Stephan et al., 1985). The data which were rejected for use in the ambient water quality criteria calculation

Chronic toxicity to freshwater aquatic animals

Chronic toxicity data are used in the derivation of ambient water quality criteria to calculate a final chronic value. According to USEPA (Stephan et al., 1985), depending on the amount of chronic toxicity data available, a final chronic value might be calculated in the same manner as the FAV, or by dividing the FAV by a final acute–chronic ratio (ACR). Due to the lack of appropriate chronic toxicity data for eight different families as described previously, a final chronic value for

Toxicity to aquatic plants

The USEPA (Stephan et al., 1985) guidelines require the review of toxicity data for plants when developing ambient water quality criteria. According to the guidelines, a plant value can be based on a 96-h test conducted with an alga or a chronic test conducted with an aquatic vascular plant. Following review of the data, a Final Plant Value is obtained by selecting the result from a test with an important aquatic plant species in which the test material was measured and the endpoint was

Bioaccumulation

The USEPA (Stephan et al., 1985) guidelines require the review of bioaccumulation data when developing ambient water quality criteria. Two studies were available regarding the bioaccumulation of formaldehyde in aquatic organisms. The experiments were performed on a variety of fish and shrimp, and results indicated no bioaccumulation of formaldehyde (Hose and Lightner, 1980; Sills and Allen, 1979). Additional authors also report that formaldehyde does not bioaccumulate (Kitchens et al., 1976;

Unused data

This section describes the bioassay results from the literature which were not used in the calculation of ambient water quality criteria in this report. These data were not used because the studies generally did not meet the data requirements specified by USEPA (Stephan et al., 1985). The data are, however, identified herein to explain the basis for selection of acceptable studies, and to provide additional information on formaldehyde toxicity. Due to the large number of potential references

Criteria derivation

This paper proposes acute and chronic aquatic life water quality criteria for formaldehyde, derived using literature values and supplemental toxicity test results. Criteria were derived in accordance with the procedures in Guidelines for Deriving Numerical National Water Quality Criteria for the Protection of Aquatic Organisms and Their Uses (Stephan et al., 1985).

The FAV calculated from the available data is 9.15 mg/l (Table 4). Therefore, the acute aquatic life water quality criterion, which

David W. Hohreiter, Ph.D. and David K. Rigg, M.S. are scientists specializing in aquatic toxicology and ecological and human health risk assessment. Dr. Hohreiter received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University and graduate degrees from the University of Georgia. Mr. Rigg received undergraduate and graduate degrees from Paul Smiths College and the State University of NewYork College of Environmental Science and Forestry. They are employed by BBL Sciences in Syracuse, New York, USA.

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