Abstract
The advanced oxidation process (AOP) is used to increase the treatment efficiency of effluents however, it is necessary to compare the toxicity of treated and untreated effluents to evaluate if the decontamination process does not cause any biological harm. Cultured cells have been previously used to assess the genotoxic and cytotoxic potential of various compounds. Hence, the aim of this work was to assess the applicability of cytotoxicity assays to evaluate the toxicity related to the AOP treatment. Samples of an industrial effluent were collected after their treatment by a conventional method. Cytotoxicity of standard and AOP treated effluents was assessed in CRIB and HEp-2 cell line using the MTT and neutral red assays. We observed decrease at cell viability in the both assays (50% MTT and 13% NRU) when cells were exposed to the AOP treatment in the highest concentration. Thus, cytotoxic assays in cultured cells can be explored as an useful method to evaluate toxicity as well as to optimize effluents treatment process.
Highlights
Due to worldwide decline of water resources, treated wastewater represents a growing portion of the water supply
Chemicals enter the aquatic medium in several different ways, either dumped directly, such as industrial effluents, or from wastewater treatment plants that do not fulfill their obligations (Oller et al, 2011)
Effluent used in the study was collected at a discharge point in a conventional effluent treatment plant of a tannery located at Sinos valley (RS), which performs out all industrial processes from raw hides to finished leather, being the most of leather and, most of the leather was produced by chrome tanning
Summary
Due to worldwide decline of water resources, treated wastewater represents a growing portion of the water supply. Many surface water sources, such as rivers, lakes and reservoirs are used for both the disposal of treated wastewater and the withdrawal of fresh water for human consumption (Liu and Li, 2010). The presence of organic pollutants (Chen et al, 2000) and chemical pollution from heavy metals, solvents, dyes, pesticides, among others (Oller et al, 2011) in water and wastewater is one of the major threats to water quality as well as to human health and the environment. Chemicals enter the aquatic medium in several different ways, either dumped directly, such as industrial effluents, or from wastewater treatment plants that do not fulfill their obligations (Oller et al, 2011).
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