Handbook of Solvents - George Wypych - ChemTech - Ventech!

17.3 Environmental fate of glycol ethers 1169
REFERENCES
1 W. R. Roy, R. A. Griffin, J. K. Mitchell, and R. A. Mitchell, Environ. Geol. Water Sci., 13, 225 (1989).
2 W. R. Roy and R. A. Griffin, J. Haz. Mat., 15, 365 (1987).
3 R. A. Griffin and W. R. Roy. Feasibility of land disposal of organic solvents: Preliminary Assessment.
Environmental Institute for Waste Management Studies, Report No. 10, University of Alabama, 1986.
4 W. R. Roy and R. A. Griffin, Environ. Geol. Water Sci., 7, 241 (1985).
5 W. J. George and P. D. Siegel. Assessment of recommended concentrations of selected organic solvents in
drinking water. Environmental Institute for Waste Management Studies, Report No. 15, University of
Alabama, 1988.
17.3 ENVIRONMENTAL FATE AND ECOTOXICOLOGICAL EFFECTS
OF GLYCOL ETHERS
James Devillers
CTIS, Rillieux La Pape, France
Aurélie Chezeau, André Cicolella, and Eric Thybaud
INERIS, Verneuil-en-Halatte, France
17.3.1 INTRODUCTION
Glycol ethers and their acetates are widely used as solvents in the chemical, painting, printing,
mining and furniture industries. They are employed in the production of paints, coatings,
resins, inks, dyes, varnishes, lacquers, cleaning products, pesticides, deicing additives
for gasoline and jet fuel, and so on. 1 In 1997, the world production of glycol ethers was
about 900,000 metric tons. 2
There are two distinct series of glycol ethers namely the ethylene glycol ethers which
are produced from ethylene oxide and the propylene glycol ethers derived from propylene
oxide. The former series is more produced and used than the latter. Thus, inspection of the
42,000 chemical substances recorded by INRS (France) in the SEPIA data bank, between
1983 and 1998, reveals that 10% of them include ethylene glycol ethers and about 4% propylene
glycol ethers. 2 However, due to the reproductive toxicity of some ethylene glycol
monoalkyl ethers, 3-5 it is important to note that the worldwide tendency is to replace these
chemicals by glycol ethers belonging to the propylenic series. 2
Given the widespread use of glycol ethers, it is obvious that these chemicals enter the
environment in substantial quantities. Thus, for example, the total releases to all environmental
media in the United States for ethylene glycol monomethyl ether and ethylene glycol
monoethyl ether in 1992 were 1688 and 496 metric tons, respectively. 6 However, despite
the potential hazard of these chemicals, the problems of the environmental contaminations
with glycol ethers have not received much attention. There are two main reasons for this.
First, these chemicals are not classified as priority pollutants, and hence, their occurrence in
the different compartments of the environment is not systematically investigated. Thus, for
example, there are no glycol ethers on the target list for the Superfund hazardous waste site
cleanup program. 6 Second, glycol ethers are moderately volatile colorless liquids with a
high water solubility and a high solubility with numerous solvents. Consequently, the clas-