The Toxicity of Phenol, o-Chlorophenol.
and o-Nitrophenol to Bluegill Sunfish
MILTON W. LAMMERING, Assistant Sanitary Engineer
U.S. Public Health Service
Robert A. Taft Sanitary Engineering Center
Cincinnati, Ohio
NATHAN C. BURBANK, JR. , Professor and Head
Department of Civil Engineering
Washington University
St. Louis, Missouri
INTRODUCTION
The pollution of a raw water source detrimentally affects a fundamental
and vital resource which is a necessity in each phase of the populations'
everyday life. In addition to increasing the water treatment costs of downstream users and possibly contaminating a domestic supply with toxicants that
are not removed by ordinary methods of treatment, pollution may produce
massive fish kills and degrade the water source to a level which is unsuitable
for aquatic life. Pollution associated fish kills are receiving more public attention and increasing efforts are being directed towards an explanation of
each such occurrence, for the impairment of sport fishing affects an industry
with an annual value of almost two billion dollars and over 28 5 million
angling enthusiasts.   (1) (2)
Current literature is filled with toxicity information, but an attempt to
list or summarize meaningful data for all the compounds that may produce a
fish kill directly or indirectly through synergistic actions would be an impossible task. The reviewer is faced with a wealth of toxicity information for
certain compounds and a complete void of pertinent toxicity information for
other important compounds which are discharged to surface waters in sizeable
quantities. Adding further complexity to the task is the individuality
associated with many toxicity studies and the lack of a standardized procedure
prior to 1951. The reported results for numerous compounds must be carefully evaluated as they may be misleading for the three following reasons:
An unsatisfactory experimental procedure may have been employed,
especially in early tests.
High quality dilution water, which was not only suitable for the test
specimens but free from other toxic compounds producing synergistic or
antagonistic effects, has not always been used.
Some investigations have lacked adequate control tests, such as dissolved oxygen and pH, to show conclusively that the apparent toxicity
was due to the compound under consideration and not other causes.
As a result, it appears that many compounds which have been extensively
studied in the past should be re-evaluated by a rigidly controlled boiassay.
An excellent example of a compound requiring more extensive study is
phenol (carbolic acid). The general toxic effect of phenol in a fresh-water
supply has been demonstrated by a number of investigators. However, there
has been considerable disagreement over the maximum concentration that
can be tolerated by all fish,  as the current literature now contains reported
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