THE EFFECTS OF PHENOL PRESENT IN THE ENVIRONMENT
Dumitru Condrat, Florian Harja
ABSTRACT
Phenol is a solid crystalline substance and is found in many products and due to the irritating effects that it has can affect human health. Also higher doses can lead to death, however daily intake doses for humans are lower than this limit. The real danger comes from the fact that phenol has carcinogenic effects, which is more dangerous on long-term basis.
Phenol is toxic for the organisms in sweet water, however the data that is currently available for the salted water organisms is not conclusive as far as toxicity is concerned. Bioaccumulation phenomena were however observed at several marine organisms and this can present a damaging potential for the human health if such organisms are to become foods.