Tungsten speciation and toxicity: Acute toxicity of mono- and poly-tungstates to fish

Nikolay Strigul, Agamemnon Koutsospyros, Christos Christodoulatos

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

72 Scopus citations

Abstract

Tungsten is a widely used transition metal for which very limited information on environmental and toxicological effects is available. Of particular interest is the lack of information linking tungsten speciation and environmental effects. Tungsten anions may polymerize (depending upon concentration, pH, and aquatic geochemistry) in aquatic and soil systems. However, to this date, of all soluble tungstate species only monotungstates have been scrutinized to a fair extent in toxicological studies. The objective of this work is a comparative assessment of the acute toxicity of monotungstates (sodium tungstate, Na2WO4) and polytungstates (sodium metatungstate, 3Na2WO4·9WO3) to Poecilia reticulate. The experiments have been performed according to the OEDC protocols 203 and 204. LD50 values for 1-14 days show that sodium metatungstate is significantly more toxic to fish than sodium tungstate. Based on LD50 (0.86-3.88 g L-1 or 4.67-21.1×10-3 mol Na2WO4 L-1), sodium tungstate may be classified as a chemical of low toxicity to fish. Sodium metatungstate caused similar fish mortality to sodium tungstate when it was introduced in 55-80 times lower concentrations (in terms of mol L-1) than sodium tungstate. LD50 values for sodium metatungstate range from 0.13 to 0.85 g W L-1 or 5.69 to 38.71×10-5 mol 3Na2WO4·9WO3 L-1. Based on these values sodium metatungstate can be classified as a moderate toxic agent to fish.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)164-171
Number of pages8
JournalEcotoxicology and Environmental Safety
Volume73
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2010

Keywords

  • Fish toxicity test
  • Heavy metals
  • Polytungstates
  • Sodium metatungstate
  • Sodium tungstate
  • Tungsten ecotoxicology

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