The acute toxicity of pulse-dosed, para-substituted phenols to larval American flagfish (Jordanella floridae): a comparison with toxicity to photoluminescent bacteria and predicted toxicity using log Kow.

The acute toxicity of nine para-substituted phenols was determined using a pulse-exposure testing protocol and 8-day-old larval American flagfish (Jordanella floridae). Relative tolerance was assessed by determining the 2-h pulse exposure concentration causing 20 and 50% mortality (PE LC20 and PE LC50) over the subsequent 94 h. Four bioassays were run for each phenol and yielded the following mean PE LC20 values (mg 1(-1)) in descending order of toxicity: p-aminophenol, 0.06; hydroquinone, 0.13; phenol, 0.70; p-nitrophenol, 0.81; p-cyanophenol, 3.0; p-chlorophenol, 3.3; p-hydroxyacetophenone, 4.2; p-hydroxybenzyl alcohol, 6.4; and p-hydroxybenzoic acid, 170. These toxicities did not correlate significantly with either previously reported toxicity values for the photoluminescent bacteria Photobacterium phosphoreum, or with the log octanol-water partition coefficient. For some of the compounds, however, sensitivities were quite close to previously reported rainbow trout chronic no-observed-effect concentrations based on continuous exposure. Caution is urged with respect to applying "low-level" biota techniques or simple quantitative structure-activity correlations such as Kow when attempting to predict the toxicity of specific chemicals to fish.