New Data Obtained on the Toxicity of Cobalt to the Marine Environment

Guildford, 26 March 2021. The Cobalt Institute supported a programme of scientific studies on “Chronic Toxicity of Cobalt to Marine Organisms”, published in the Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry Journal. The studies generated data on the toxicity of cobalt to the marine environment by conducting chronic toxicity tests on ten commonly used laboratory marine organisms, in line with international practices. The results greatly expand the available database of high-quality chronic toxicity information for cobalt and marine species.

The research enabled derivation of a marine cobalt HC5 value, according to EU guidelines, of 7.09 μg/L dissolved Co (95% CI 0.025–47.3 μg Co/L) using a logistic model; a value of 29.1 μg/L dissolved Co was determined when a “best‐fit” Levy distribution was used. It also found out that marine organisms were generally less sensitive than freshwater organisms to dissolved Co.

Read the full manuscript here: http://doi.org/10.1002/etc.4993