QSAR issues in aquatic toxicity of surfactants.

Acute lethal toxicity data for a range of anionic and non-ionic surfactants are analysed with the aim of determining whether QSARs can be developed relating toxicity to calculated log P (octanol/water) values. Approaches have been developed for dealing with deficiencies in the fragment method for calculation of log P when applied to surfactants, and when these are applied it is found that log P-based QSARs for surfactants can be developed and are very similar to QSARs established for non-surfactant organic compounds with non-specific modes of action.