Surfactant bioconcentration - a critical review

Bioconcentration data for surfactants have been collected and critically reviewed. Twenty-two references report whole body bioconcentration data. Most of these data are inappropriate to quantitatively describe the bioconcentration of surfactants because the most frequently used analytical method, LSC without prior chromatographic separation of radiolabelled compounds, does not allow to distinguish between parent compound and metabolites. Hence, the measured concentrations very likely are overestimates of the concentration of the parent surfactant. In order to compare data we defined a comparability criterion. Data which fulfil this criterion consistently overestimate the true extent of bioconcentration. Fifty-four out of 100 whole body concentration ratios (CRs) were selected employing the above criterion, with 33, 11, and 10 CRs reported for anionic, cationic and nonionic surfactants, respectively.