Toxicity testing of dispersed oil requires adherence to standardized protocols to assess potential real world effects

Recently, several researchers have attempted to address Deepwater Horizon incident environmental fate and effects issues using laboratory testing and extrapolation procedures that are not fully reliable measures for environmental assessments. The 2013 Rico-Martínez et al. publication utilized laboratory testing approaches that severely limit our ability to reliably extrapolate such results to meaningful real-world assessments. The authors did not adopt key methodological elements of oil and dispersed oil toxicity standards. Further, they drew real-world conclusions from static exposure tests without reporting actual exposure concentrations. Without this information, it is not possible to compare their results to other research or real spill events that measured and reported exposure concentrations. The 1990s' Chemical Response to Oil Spills: Ecological Effects Research Forum program was established to standardize and conduct exposure characterization in oil and dispersed oil aquatic toxicity testing (Aurand and Coelho, 2005). This commentary raises awareness regarding the necessity of standardized test protocols.