Eco-Toxicological Evaluation of Fire-Fighting Foams in Small-Sized Aquatic and Semi-Aquatic Biotopes

Abstract

A variety of chemicals including foaming agents are used to aid in the protection of forest resources from the wild land fires. The fire-fighting foams (FFFs) are formulations composed principally of surfactants. As a part of Japanese national project, environmentally inert FFFs have been developed. There is an emerging need for testing the impacts of these FFFs on the living organisms composing the typical landscapes or eco-systems in Japan. In the present report, we aimed to describe our latest attempt for assessing both the short-tem and long-term impacts of FFFs in aquatic (fresh water) and semi-aquatic (wetland) eco-systems, by employing the laboratory-sized model assays (preliminary studies) and the biotope-based observation, respectively. In the biotope assays which was based on the observation in compact biotopes mimicking the fresh water environments and wetland, both the acute and long-term eco-toxic impacts of two FFFs (soap-based and synthetic detergent-based) were assessed. Spraying of synthetic detergent-based foam formula was shown to be more toxic compared to soap-based formula and mock water treatment.