Petroleum hydrocarbons toxicity

Carpenter CP, Geary DL, Myers RC, et al. 1976. Petroleum hydrocarbon toxicity studies XL Animal and human response to vapors of deodorized kerosene. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol 36(3) 443-456. 

Carpenter CP, Kinkead ER, Geary DL Jr, et al. 1975. Petroleum hydrocarbon toxicity studies I. Methodology. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol 32 246-262. 

Ewisman MP, Swindoll S. 1991. Determination of petroleum hydrocarbon toxicity with microtox. Bulletin of Environmental Contamination Toxicology 47(6) 811. 

Carpenter CP et al Petroleum hydrocarbon toxicity studies. XVII animal response to nonane. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol 53, 1978... 

Carpenter CP, Kinkead ER, Geary KL, et al Petroleum hydrocarbon toxicity series. IV. Animal and human response to vapors of rubber solvent. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol 33(3) 526-542, 1975... 

Bossert ID, GC Compeau (1995) Cleanup of petroleum hydrocarbon contamination in soil. In Microbial transformation and Degradation of Toxic Organic Chemicals (Eds LY Young and CE Cerniglia), pp. 77-125. Wiley-Liss, New York. 

Mineral Oil Hydraulic Fluids and Polyalphaolefin Hydraulic Fluids. Limited information about environmentally important physical and chemical properties is available for the mineral oil and water-in-oil emulsion hydraulic fluid products and components is presented in Tables 3-4, 3-5, and 3-7. Much of the available trade literature emphasizes properties desirable for the commercial end uses of the products as hydraulic fluids rather than the physical constants most useful in fate and transport analysis. Since the products are typically mixtures, the chief value of the trade literature is to identify specific chemical components, generally various petroleum hydrocarbons. Additional information on the properties of the various mineral oil formulations would make it easier to distinguish the toxicity and environmental effects and to trace the site contaminant s fate based on levels of distinguishing components. Improved information is especially needed on additives, some of which may be of more environmental and public health concern than the hydrocarbons that comprise the bulk of the mineral oil hydraulic fluids by weight. For the polyalphaolefin hydraulic fluids, basic physical and chemical properties related to assessing environmental fate and exposure risks are essentially unknown. Additional information for these types of hydraulic fluids is clearly needed. 

Exposure of various invertebrate species to high concentrations of petroleum did not induce mixed function oxidase activity. Enzyme activity was stimulated, however, in a number of fish tissues by petroleum. Different permutations can be addressed as to the significance of basal or induced levels of mixed function oxidases and hydrocarbon toxicity. AHH may have a physiological role in enhancing hydrocarbon clearance but may also increase the mutagenic-carcinogenic potential of hydrocarbons. Both of these concepts have been demonstrated in studies with fish (29,30). Induced AHH levels may permit a more rapid oxidative transformation with concomitant "disappearance" of parent hydrocarbons, but potentially toxic metabolites could be retained in tissues for longer periods (31). It is likely that at the enzymic level the... 

This includes bioremediation cases of contaminated sites with several toxic and carcinogenic pollutants, such as petroleum hydrocarbons, PAHs, dichlorobenzene, chlorinated hydrocarbons, carbon tetrachloride, Dicamba, methyl bromide, trinitrotoluene, silicon-based organic compounds, dioxins, alkyl-phenol polyethoxylates, nonylphenol ethoxylates, and polychlorinated biphenyls. The following is a brief summary of each case. 

Once the sample preparation is complete, there are several approaches to the analysis of petroleum constituents in the water and soil (1) leachability or toxicity of the sample, (2) the amounts of total petroleum hydrocarbons in the sample, (3) petroleum group analysis, and (4) fractional analysis of the sample. These methods measure different petroleum constituents that might be present in petroleum-contaminated environmental media. 

Therefore, for infrared spectroscopic methods, the total petroleum hydrocarbons comprise any chemicals extracted by a solvent that are not removed by silica gel and can be detected by infrared spectroscopy at a specified wavelength. The primary advantage of the infrared-based methods is that they are simple and rapid. Detection limits (e.g., for EPA 418.1) are approximately 1 mg/L in water and 10 mg/kg in soil. However, the infrared method(s) often suffer from poor accuracy and precision, especially for heterogeneous soil samples. Also, the infrared methods give no information on the type of fuel present in the sample, and there is little, often no information about the presence or absence of toxic molecules, and no specific information about potential risk associated with the contamination. 

Many common environmental methods measure individual petroleum constituents or target compound rather than the entire signal from the total petroleum hydrocarbons. Each method measures a suite of compounds selected because of their toxicity and common use in industry. 

The assessment of health effects due to exposure to the total petroleum hydrocarbons requires much more detailed information than what is provided by a single total petroleum hydrocarbon value. More detailed physical and chemical properties and analytical information on the total petroleum hydrocarbons fraction and its components are required. Indeed, a critical aspect of assessing the toxic effects of the total petroleum hydrocarbons is the measurement of the compounds, and the first task is to appreciate the origin of the various fractions (compounds) of the total petroleum hydrocarbons. Transport fractions are determined by several chemical and physical properties (i.e., solubility, vapor pressure, and propensity to bind with soil and organic particles). These properties are the basis of measures of teachability and volatility of individual hydrocarbons and transport fractions (Chapters 8, 9, and 10). 

It is possible that the photoionization detector (1) may not be completely selective for aromatics and can lead to an overestimate of the more mobile and toxic aromatic content and (2) the results from the two analyses, purge-able and extractable hydrocarbons, can overlap in carbon number and cannot simply be added together to get a total concentration of the total petroleum hydrocarbons. 

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