Toxicity of Fire Retardant Chemicals to Aquatic Organisms: Progress Report

Table 4

Table 4. Acute toxicity (96-hour LC50; mg/L; 95% confidence interval in parentheses) of five fire retardant chemicals to rainbow trout exposed at 12°C in ASTM soft and hard waters at five life stages. Astericks denote a significant difference (p=0.05) between soft and hard water for a test formulation. Letters in common denote no significant difference (p=0.05) among life stages within a test formulation and water quality.

Chemical	Water type	Life stage
Chemical	Water type	Egg	Embryo-larval	Swim-up	60 day	90 day
Fire-Trol LCG-R	Soft	> 10,000^a	> 3600^b	910^c	1080^cd	1413^d*
	Soft	> 10,000^a	> 3600^b	(722-1115)	(880-1353)	(1105-1724)
	Hard	> 10,000^a	2642^1b	827^c	1413^d	1006^4c*
	Hard	> 10,000^a	(2117-3249)	(685-1066)	(1105-1724)	(780-1300)
Fire-Trol GTS-R	Soft	> 3600^a	718^b	363^4c*	390^c*	363^4c*
	Soft	> 3600^a	(589-918)	(280-470)	(316-489)	(280-470)
	Hard	> 6000^a	606^b	207^2c	234^c*	234^c*
	Hard	> 6000^a	(490-749)	(170-280)	(191-291)	(191-291)
Phos-Chek D-75-F	Soft	> 1700^a	266^3b	279^4b	234^b	218^4b
	Soft	> 1700^a	(213-327)	(216-360)	(191-291)	(170-280)
	Hard	> 3600^a	235^3b	218^4b	218^4b	218^4b
	Hard	> 3600^a	(183-287)	(170-280)	(170-280)	(170-280)
Phos Chek WD-881	Soft	44^5a	13^4b	13^4b	15^b	20^c
	Soft	44^5a	(10-17)	(10-17)	(12-19)	(16-25)
	Hard	22^a	10^b	11^b	13^4b	13^4b
	Hard	(18-27)	(8-13)	(9-14)	(10-17)	(10-17)
Silv-Ex	Soft	> 78^a	15^b*	20^bc*	22^4c*	22^4c*
	Soft	> 78^a	(12-20)	(16-25)	(17-28)	(17-28)
	Hard	47^a	11^b*	13^4b*	14^b*	15^b*
	Hard	(38-62)	(9-14)	(10-17)	(11-18)	(12-19)
¹LC50 calculated with 1300 mg/L test concentration omitted. ²LC50 calculated using binomial test. ³Tests were started with true sac-fry. ⁴= No partial kills; 95% confidence interval: lower limit = highest test concentration with 0% mortality, and upper limit = lowest test concentration with 100% mortality. ⁵= LC50 calculated by binomial test; less than 70% mortality in highest test concentration.