Quantitative modeling of environmental fate and impact of commercial chemicals

Present laws in many countries require that all commercial chemicals be assessed for their environmental behavior and hazards. Because there are a large number of chemicals currently in common use (approximately 100,000) and new chemicals are being registered at a very high rate (1,000 per year), it is obvious that our human and material resources are insufficient to obtain experimentally even basic information about environmental fate and effects for all these chemicals. Thus, it is necessary to develop quantitative models that will accurately and rapidly predict environmental behavior for large sets of chemicals. During the last decade, a considerable effort has been made to develop methods that use molecular characteristics to describe environmental behavior of organic pollutants. Thus far, molecular connectivity indexes have been shown to be the most successful structural property for describing and predicting soil sorption coefficients, association coefficients with dissolved humic substances, Henry's law constants, bioconcentration factors in aquatic organisms and vegetation, biodegradation rates, and fish acute toxicity. The general quantitative model, based on the first-order molecular connectivity index (MCI), has been developed for the accurate estimation of soil sorption coefficients for predominantly hydrophobic chemicals: polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), halogenated hydrocarbons, and phenols. It is possible to extend this model for many classes of agricultural chemicals. A similar model, based on the second-order valence MCI, has been developed for fish bioconcentration factors of PCBs, chlorinated diphenyl oxides, halogenated hydrocarbons, PAHs, and phenols, plus substituted benzenes. Furthermore, a prototype expert system has been developed for classifying untested chemicals as readily or not readily biodegradable, based on their chemical structures. Finally, using a standardized data base for fish acute toxicity, we have obtained a simple linear correlation between the valence zero-order MCI and the 96-h LC50 data for a large group of 150 structurally diverse commercial chemicals.

[1]  Modeling plant uptake of airborne organic chemicals. 1. Plant cuticle/water partitioning and molecular connectivity , 1990 .

[2]  D Mackay,et al.  Correlation of bioconcentration factors. , 1982, Environmental science & technology.

[3]  M. Protic,et al.  Relationship between molecular connectivity indices and soil sorption coefficients of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons , 1982, Bulletin of environmental contamination and toxicology.

[4]  A. Sabljic,et al.  Quantitative modeling of soil sorption for xenobiotic chemicals. , 1989, Environmental health perspectives.

[5]  Robert S. Boethling,et al.  Screening-level model for aerobic biodegradability based on a survey of expert knowledge , 1989 .

[6]  A Sabljić The prediction of fish bioconcentration factors of organic pollutants from the molecular connectivity model. , 1987, Zeitschrift fur die gesamte Hygiene und ihre Grenzgebiete.

[7]  A. Sabljic Quantitative structure-toxicity relationship of chlorinated compounds: A molecular connectivity investigation , 1983, Bulletin of environmental contamination and toxicology.

[8]  P. Landrum,et al.  Uptake, depuration, and biotransformation of anthracene and benzo[a]pyrene in bluegill sunfish. , 1983, Ecotoxicology and environmental safety.

[9]  R. Koch,et al.  Molecular connectivity index for assessing ecotoxicological behaviour of organic compounds , 1983 .

[10]  A. Sabljic,et al.  Quantitative structure-activity study on the mechanism of inhibition of microsomal p-hydroxylation of aniline by alcohols. Role of steric factors. , 1983, Molecular pharmacology.

[11]  A. Sabljic Predictions of the nature and strength of soil sorption of organic pollutants by molecular topology , 1984 .

[12]  Y. Ose,et al.  The estimation for toxicity of chemicals on fish by physico-chemical properties , 1986 .

[13]  A. Sabljic Calculation of retention indices by molecular topology: chlorinated alkanes. , 1984, Journal of chromatography.

[14]  R. Boethling,et al.  Expert systems survey on biodegradation of xenobiotic chemicals. , 1989, Ecotoxicology and environmental safety.

[15]  A. Sabljic Calculation of retention indices by molecular topology , 1985 .

[16]  Aleksandar Sabljic,et al.  On the prediction of soil sorption coefficients of organic pollutants from molecular structure: application of molecular topology model. , 1987, Environmental science & technology.

[17]  C. Ruepert,et al.  Quantitative structure-activity relationships for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons: Correlation between molecular connectivity, physico-chemical properties, bioconcentration and toxicity in Daphnia pulex , 1984 .

[18]  Aleksandar Sabljić,et al.  Quantitative structure-activity relationships of acute toxicity of commercial chemicals on fathead minnows: effect of molecular size , 1989 .

[19]  Nagamany Nirmalakhandan,et al.  QSAR model for predicting Henry's constant , 1988 .

[20]  J. Means,et al.  Sorption of amino- and carboxy-substituted polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons by sediments and soils , 1982 .

[21]  Gilman D. Veith,et al.  Structure–Toxicity Relationships for the Fathead Minnow, Pimephales promelas: Narcotic Industrial Chemicals , 1983 .

[22]  S. Karickhoff,et al.  SORPTION OF HYDROPHOBIC POLLUTANTS ON NATURAL SEDIMENTS , 1979 .

[23]  William J. Doucette,et al.  Use of molecular connectivity indices to estimate soil sorption coefficients for organic chemicals , 1988 .

[24]  C. Helling,et al.  Evaluation of molecular connectivity as a predicitive method for the adsorption of pesticides by soils , 1985 .

[25]  J. Sangster,et al.  Octanol‐Water Partition Coefficients of Simple Organic Compounds , 1989 .

[26]  E. E. Kenaga,et al.  Relationship between water solubility, soil sorption, octanol-water partitioning, and concentration of chemicals in biota , 1980 .

[27]  Nonempirical Modeling of Environmental Distribution and Toxicity of Major Organic Pollutants , 1987 .

[28]  Gilman D. Veith,et al.  Measuring and Estimating the Bioconcentration Factor of Chemicals in Fish , 1979 .

[29]  L. Hall,et al.  Structural influences and mechanisms of toxic effects of alcohols and their derivatives , 1982, Bulletin of environmental contamination and toxicology.

[30]  J. Giesy,et al.  Predictive models for photoinduced acute toxicity of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons to Daphnia magna, strauss (cladocera, crustacea) , 1987 .

[31]  G. Briggs,et al.  Theoretical and experimental relationships between soil adsorption, octanol-water partition-coefficients, water solubilities, bioconcentration factors, and the parachor , 1981 .

[32]  M. Protic,et al.  Molecular connectivity: a novel method for prediction of bioconcentration factor of hazardous chemicals. , 1982, Chemico-biological interactions.

[33]  Modelling association of highly chlorinated biphenyls with marine humic substances , 1989 .

[34]  Joop L. M. Hermens,et al.  Determination of octanol/water partition coefficients for hydrophobic organic chemicals with the “slow‐stirring” method , 1989 .

[35]  M. Randic Characterization of molecular branching , 1975 .

[36]  A. Opperhuizen,et al.  Thermodynamics of fish/water and octan-1-ol/water partitioning of some chlorinated benzenes. , 1988, Environmental science & technology.

[37]  Predicting Henry's law constants for polychlorinated biphenyls , 1989 .

[38]  Robert S. Boethling,et al.  Application of molecular topology to quantitative structure‐biodegradability relationships , 1986 .

[39]  R. Davies,et al.  The prediction of bioconcentration in fish , 1984 .