4.1 DflRODUCnCN 



This chapter is organized in subsections pertaining to selected categories 

 of scientific knowledge as related to tributyltin antifouling paints. 

 These sections are: 



o Estimated release rates from antifouling paints. 



o Toxicity to freshwater and marine organisms. 



o Behavior and fate in the marine environment. 



o BiocxDrK^ntration/bioaa^umLdation/bicmagnification. 



o Levels or concentrations found in marine environments. 



o Laboratory analytical methodologies. 



o Comparison of reporting units in the literature. 



o Computer numerical modeling. 



o Alternatives to organotin based antifoulant coatings. 



An extensive literature search was conducted through the Dialog Informa- 

 tion Service data bases comprising the files of METADEX Oceanic Abstracts 

 National Technical Information Service, INSPEC (Physics, Electronics and 

 Computing) COMFENDEX (Engineering and Technology) , ISMEC (Engineering) , 

 Current Technology Index (UK Publications) , World Aluminum Abstracts, 

 BIOSIS Previews, Water Pesources Abstracts, Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries 

 Abstracts. For these searches, a comprehensive list of search terms and 

 key words were developed in consultation with SAIC's information retrieval 

 specialists and David S. Moulder, Head, Marine Pollution Information 

 Centre, Marine Biological Association, Plymouth, United Kingdom. 



The distribution by general categories of reviewed organotin literature is 

 presented in Table 4.1 and an international organotin bibliography is 

 presented in the Appendix. From reviewing this literature, it is evident 

 that the bulk of the research effort to date has been in toxicology and 

 bioaccumulatian studies, primarily the former. laboratory bioassay 

 procedures are relatively easy to run and inexpensive when compared to 

 field cause and effects studies and monitoring programs. Twenty percent 

 of the reviewed studies have dealt with some aspect of monitoring,, but 

 only five percent have ended up as refereed publications. Most of the 

 remainder were summary type articles referencing data reported from other 

 studies. The two categories with the paucity of refereed publications or 

 cited work were release rates from ships, and analysis of the severity of 

 the problem. The following sections are a review of the available 

 literature by selected categories. 



IV-1 



