The environmental characteristics of industrial water treatment biocides are of great concern due to increasing regulatory pressure on water discharge and awareness of global ecology. A detailed knowledge of the environmental impact of a biocide is critical to its safe use and requires extensive testing. Isothiazolone biocides are broad spectrum antimicrobial which are used in a variety of industrial water treatment applications. In aquatic environments, these compounds rapidly
biodegrade with half-lives significantly less than 24 hours. Metabolism involves cleavage of the isothiazolone ring and oxidation of the organic carbon to CO2. Additionally, nucleophilic compounds may initiate degradation of these compound resulting in cleavage of the ring and the production of simple organic acids. Like most biocides, these compound show a significant degree of toxicity to non-target aquatic organisms; however, their rapid metabolism results in compounds which are 4-5 orders of magnitude lower in toxicity. Model systems studies have shown that typical use rates of isothiazolone biocides have no significant impact on biological waste treatment and do not generate halogenated byproducts. Thus, there is negligible environmental risk involved in the proper use of these biocides. Keywords: isothiazolone, biocide, environmental, half-life, biodegradation, microbial, hydrolysis