Environmental Effects
Acetone evaporates rapidly, even from water and soil. Once in the atmosphere, it has a 22-day half-life and is degraded by UV light via photolysis (primarily into methane and ethane). Acetone dissipates slowly in soil, animals, or waterways since it is sometimes consumed by microorganisms, but it is a significant groundwater contaminant due to its high solubility in water. The LD50 of acetone for fish is 8.3 g/L of water (or about 0.8%) over 96 hours, and its environmental half-life is about 1 to 10 days. Acetone may pose a significant risk of oxygen depletion in aquatic systems due to the microbial consumption.
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