Toxicity of spill-treating agents and oil to sea urchin embryos

The aim of this study was to assess the joint toxicity of a Maya crude oil and four spill-treating agents (STAs) (CytoSol, Finasol OSR51, Agma OSD569 and OD4000). The acute toxicity of the binary mixtures of the water accommodated fractions (WAFs) obtained independently for the oil and each STA was assessed. The toxicity of the chemically enhanced WAF (CEWAF) of oil and Finasol OSR51 at several dispersant to oil ratios (1:2, 1:10 and 1:100) was also evaluated. The toxicity (EC50) obtained for the WAFs of the STAs was: CytoSol (15.1 mL/L) < Agma OSD 569 (9.8 mL/L) < OD4000 (2.6 mL/L) < and Finasol OSR 51 (1.8 mL/L). An accurate description of the toxicity of binary mixtures was obtained by the following models: Concentration Addition (Agma OSD569 and CytoSol), Independent Action (Finasol OSR51) and extended Concentration Addition model to describe antagonistic effects (OD4000). The CEWAFs showed an intermediate position between the more moderate effects of the WAF of oil and the higher toxicity of the WAFs of Finasol OSR51, which suggested the high sensitivity of the sea urchin embryo toward the dispersant.