Chronic toxicity of the ultraviolet filter octocrylene to the sea urchin, Arbacia punctulata

With increasing concern over the environmental safety of cosmetic and personal care product ingredients discharged to the aquatic environment, a need to evaluate the risk of recreational ultraviolet filter (UVF) emissions in coastal marine environments has grown in prominence. A commonly used UVF, octocrylene (OC), has been detected in several monitoring studies of coastal environments, emphasizing the need for a marine environmental safety assessment. A review of the literature identified that there is a paucity of reliable marine chronic toxicity data available to generate toxicological thresholds for OC. While leveraging freshwater data is possible, this results in the incorporation of significant uncertainty in the assessment as key marine taxa (such as echinoderms, mollusks, or cnidarians) cannot be suitably represented. To help remedy this, U. S. Environmental Protection Agency Test Method 1008.0 (Sea urchin, Arbacia punctulata, Fertilization Test) was conducted to evaluate the chronic toxicity of OC on sea urchins. All test acceptability criteria were met, and concentrations of OC were adequately maintained in the test system. The resultant fertilization 10% effect concentration was 41.5 µg/L, indicating that A. punctulata fertilization is less sensitive to OC exposure than freshwater invertebrate reproduction results to date. This data point serves to further the octocrylene marine chronic ecotoxicological profile, but ultimately more data are needed prior to conducting a robust environmental safety assessment.