Toxicity of flare and crude hydrocarbon mixtures.

The toxicity of whole, saturate, and aromatic hydrocarbon mixtures from flare pit and crude oil sources were evaluated using Lumbricus terrestris. Body burden analysis was used to analyze the intrinsic toxicity of the six hydrocarbon mixtures. The major fractions of the whole mixtures, the saturate, and aromatic fractions had different intrinsic toxicities; the aromatics were more toxic than the saturates.