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Please be aware that this old REACH registration data factsheet is no longer maintained; it remains frozen as of 19th May 2023.

The new ECHA CHEM database has been released by ECHA, and it now contains all REACH registration data. There are more details on the transition of ECHA's published data to ECHA CHEM here.

Diss Factsheets

Environmental fate & pathways

Biodegradation in soil

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Administrative data

Link to relevant study record(s)

Description of key information

50% of applied radiolabelled o-xylene was mineralised in 23 days, and 50% p-xylene was mineralised in 13 days.

Key value for chemical safety assessment

Half-life in soil:
23 d
at the temperature of:
28 °C

Additional information

A study that approximates OECD 304A was identified for o-xylene and p-xylene (Tsao et al. 1998). There are several differences between the protocol followed and the standard guidelines. Only one soil type is tested and the concentration of test substance is higher than recommended (150 µL/50 g soil compared to 100 µL/50 g soil). The control test used autoclaved soil, rather than no soil. Despite these differences the study is well described and the mass balance of applied test substance is ~90 to 94%. This study demonstrated that 50% of the o-xylene and p-xylene applied to soil was mineralised to carbon dioxide in 23 and 13 days respectively.