The symbol of the heart has represented the concept of love for many years. It has been found on ancient roman coins. The inverted triangle aspect of the heart symbol can also be interpreted as a representation of the water element.
Today, we use the shortcut “<3” to include the heart symbol on our electronic messages and we can choose different coloured hearts to represent love for different aspects of our lives. The green heart is symbolic of love for the environment, for example.
Less than three, or <3, is a key numerical value when we consider love for the environment in terms of regulatory science. Less than three means that a substance has a low potential for bioaccumulation when we’re talking about the Log Kow.
The Log Kow assigns a numerical value to the behaviour of a chemical with regards to its affinity for water versus its affinity for octanol. In this case, octanol is used as a representative of biological fatty tissue, which is where bioaccumulative substances reside in organisms.
Bioaccumulation is a bad thing for a substance in the environment because it accumulates in organisms and often increases in concentration as it moves up the food chain. This increase up the food chain is termed biomagnification. Bioaccumulative substances are often difficult to excrete and so remain with the organism for a long time, perhaps for the lifetime of the animal.
Because of the biomagnification effect, apex predators are often the species we see affected most if the substance is toxic. For example, DDT affected raptors through the thinning of eggshells in the USA and Europe.
The toxicity mechanism of DDT was that it restricted calcium uptake in adult carnivorous birds. Reduced calcium caused thinning of the eggshells and this meant that an increased number of offspring were lost before full development was complete. Because apex predators generally have less young per adult, the impact on the population was marked.
If you’re in the R&D stages of candidate selection or reviewing existing portfolios or products, if you want to ensure environmental protection and don’t know the bioaccumulation potential of your substance or product ingredients, get in touch to find out how you can discover the bioaccumulation potential of your ingredients and substances.
Love the environment this Valentine's Day, be less than three.
First published 11 Feb 2021