Assessment of ecological hazards and environmental fate of disinfectant quaternary ammonium compounds

Abstract

Disinfectant quaternary ammonium compounds (Quats) have diverse uses in a variety of consumer and commercial products, particularly cleaning products. With the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, they have become a primary tool to inactivate the SARS-CoV-2 virus on surfaces. Disinfectant Quats have very low vapor pressure, and following the use phase of the products in which they are found, disposal is typically “down-the-drain” to wastewater treatment systems. Consequently, the potential for the greatest environmental effect is to the aquatic environment, from treated effluent, and potentially to soils, which might be amended with wastewater biosolids. Among the earliest used and still common disinfectant Quats are the alkyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride (ADBAC) compounds and the dialkyl dimethyl ammonium chloride (DDAC) compounds. They are cationic surfactants often found in consumer and commercial surface cleaners. Because of their biocidal properties, disinfectant Quats are heavily regulated for human and environmental safety around the world. Consequently, there is a robust database of information regarding the ecological hazards and environmental fate of ADBAC and DDAC; however, some of the data presented are from unpublished studies that have been submitted to and reviewed by regulatory agencies (i.e., EPA and European Chemicals Agency) to support antimicrobial product registration. We summarize the available environmental fate data and the acute and chronic aquatic ecotoxicity data for freshwater species, including algae, invertebrates, fish, and plants using peer-reviewed literature and unpublished data submitted to and summarized by regulatory agencies. The lower limit of the range of the ecotoxicity data for disinfectant Quats tends to be lower than that for other surface active agents, such as nonionic or anionic surfactants. However, ecotoxicity is mitigated by environmental fate characteristics, the data for which we also summarize, including high biodegradability and a strong tendency to sorb to wastewater biosolids, sediment, and soil. As a result, disinfectant Quats are largely removed during wastewater treatment, and those residues discharged in treated effluent are likely to rapidly bind to suspended solids or sediments, thus mitigating their toxicity.

Emergency Optimization Decision-Making with Incomplete Probabilistic Information under the Background of COVID-19

“…From a macroperspective, every country must implement a series of measures immediately. In addition, different countries should take different measures nationally or subnationally based on their specific contexts, management systems, and characteristics [2].…”

Quaternary ammonium compounds: perspectives on benefits, hazards, and risk

“…The incidence of neural tube defects (NTDs) on gestation days (GD) 10 or 11 increased in offspring from dams in the treated rooms versus those in untreated rooms. 3 It is interesting to note that the authors point out that: "Despite the NTDs observed in GD 10 embryos, we did not see exencephaly in late gestation fetuses. This was unexpected as NTDs are not lethal to the developing fetus.…”

Accumulation and Phytotoxicity of Two Commercial Biocides in the Lichen Evernia prunastri and the Moss Brachythecium sp.

“…The effectiveness of these biocides in impairing the photosynthesis is determined by their chemical composition, rich in quaternary ammonium compounds (i.e., didecyl-dimethyl ammonium chloride, DDAC, and BAC, respectively) as active components [16]. They are well-known xenobiotics with a notable algicidal action [35][36][37][38], produced by their remarkable capacity to disrupt cell membranes [39], which causes the release of intracellular metabolites and the degradation of proteins and nucleic acids, until cell lysis [40]. In addition, OIT showed a marked efficacy against algae, as reported in toxicity tests using the algae Scenedesmus vacuolatus and Selenastrum capricornutum [26,41], even if following a different mechanism of action (i.e., the blocking of the enzymatic pathway of cysteines in proteins active sites, respiration, ATP synthesis and metabolism) [22,26].…”