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RESEARCH FRONT
Contents Vol 6(2)

Ecological threshold concentrations for antimony in water and soil*

Koen Oorts A C and Erik Smolders B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A EURAS (European Center for Risk Assessment), ARCADIS Belgium, Kortrijksesteenweg 302, 9000 Gent, Belgium.

B University of Leuven, Division Soil and Water Management, Kasteelpark Arenberg 20, 3001 Leuven, Belgium.

C Corresponding author. Email: k.oorts@arcadisbelgium.be

Environmental Chemistry 6(2) 116-121 https://doi.org/10.1071/EN08109
Submitted: 15 December 2008  Accepted: 10 February 2009   Published: 27 April 2009

Environmental context. Antimony (Sb) is a natural trace element with several industrial applications and anthropogenic emissions can increase Sb concentrations in the environment. In order to assess the potential risks of elevated antimony concentrations to aquatic and terrestrial organisms, toxicity thresholds must be known and environmental criteria defined. Setting such criteria for antimony is not straightforward because the Sb speciation in the standard toxicity test is likely to differ from that in the environment.

Abstract. Ecologically relevant threshold concentrations for antimony are required in order to assess the potential risks of anthropogenic emissions of Sb to the environment. The present paper reports a summary of the ecotoxicity data available for various Sb substances and discusses the derivation of ecological threshold concentrations for Sb in freshwater and soils. It was concluded that data from tests with SbCl3 are useful for calculation of Sb toxicity thresholds in water. The results from SbCl3 in soil toxicity tests have little relevance because of demonstrated confounding factors of pH and salinity. The derivation of Sb threshold concentrations in soil was, therefore, based on toxicity tests in soils amended with the sparingly soluble Sb2O3 with correction for incomplete dissolution during the duration of the toxicity tests. The lowest chronic toxicity thresholds are 1.1 mg Sb L–1 in water and 370 mg Sb kg–1 dry weight for soil. These concentrations are more than 100-fold larger than typical natural background concentrations.

Additional keywords: bioavailability, ecotoxicity, speciation.




* Disclaimer: The final Predicted No Effect Concentration (PNEC) values for Sb in soil and water have been deliberated by member states in the EU and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the authors of the present paper.

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the numerous persons who contributed to toxicity data evaluation during the meetings of the EU Technical Committee for New and Existing Substances (TC NES), with special thanks to Lars Andersson and Jörgen Henriksson of the Swedish Chemicals Agency. We thank the International Antimony Association (i2a, formerly the International Antimony Oxide Industry Association, IAOIA) for funding the present research. Results from studies for i2a or IAOIA cannot be freely used to comply with regulatory requirements like REACH without the formal agreement of i2a.


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