Abstract
The acute toxicites are reported of aqueous solutions of four fresh crude oils, nine weathered crude oils, a natural gas condensate and a synthetic oil mixture to Daphnia magna in a closed system. Fresh crude oils were observed to produce LC 50's at dissolved oil concentrations which are 26 to 32% of their saturated solubilities. This is in agreement with previous work on pure hydrocarbons. Weathering a crude oil causes a marked reduction in solubility and a reduction in LC 50, but the fraction of the solubility necessary to produce lethality increases until it exceeds 100%, i.e. it becomes impossible to form a lethal aqueous solution. Weathering thus produces aqueous solutions which are more toxic in the sense of having lower LC 50's but the saturated solutions of weathered crude oils are less toxic as are the equi-diluted saturated solutions. Two methods of correlating the toxicity of fresh and weathered crude oils are proposed, one in which toxicity is related directly to aqueous solubility and another, in which the toxicities of the dominant dissolved components are added.
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