Abstract
In recent years, peracetic acid (PAA) has gained a lot of attention as an alternative disinfectant to chlorine-based disinfectants in the water industry. Commercial PAA solutions contain both PAA and hydrogen peroxide (HP), and the degradation of HP is slower than PAA when it is used for disinfection. All previous toxicity studies have been based on commercial PAA, and variance in toxicity values have been observed due to different PAA:HP ratios. In this study, the ecotoxicity of pure PAA was studied, eliminating HP from the commercial PAA mixture using potassium permanganate. Ecotoxicity data were obtained by conducting a battery of ecotoxicity tests: bioassays using Vibrio fischeri (V. fischeri), Daphnia magna (D. magna), and Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata (P. subcapitata). The effect concentration (EC50) of pure PAA was 0.84 (a 95% confidence interval of 0.78–0.91) mg/L for V. fischeri and 2.46 (2.35–2.58) mg/L for P. subcapitata, whereas the lethal concentration (LC50) was 0.74 (0.55–0.91) mg/L for D. magna. Compared to this, our previous study found that the EC50 values of commercial PAA towards V. fischeri and P. subcapitata were 0.42 (0.41–0.44) and 1.38 (0.96–1.99) mg/L, respectively, which were lower than pure PAA, whilst the LC50 for D. magna was 0.78 (0.58–0.95) mg/L. These results showed that pure PAA was less toxic to the most commonly used aquatic species for toxicity tests compared to commercial PAA, except for D. magna.
Highlights
Various disinfectants are used in the water industry to reduce the number of pathogenic organisms and eventually inhibit the spread of diseases
Our previous study found that the EC50 values of commercial peracetic acid (PAA) towards V. fischeri and P. subcapitata were 0.42 (0.41–0.44) and 1.38 (0.96–1.99) mg/L, respectively, which were lower than pure PAA, whilst the LC50 for D. magna was 0.78 (0.58–0.95) mg/L
These results showed that pure PAA was less toxic to the most commonly used aquatic species for toxicity tests compared to commercial PAA, except for D. magna
Summary
Various disinfectants are used in the water industry to reduce the number of pathogenic organisms and eventually inhibit the spread of diseases. Due to the fact that both the ecotoxicity and disinfection by-products (DBPs) of these compounds are of environmental concern, the use of these compounds is strongly discouraged [2,3,4,5]. Organic peroxides, such as peracetic acid (PAA), have already been used as alternatives to chlorine-based disinfectants for wastewater over the last few decades [6,7,8,9], showing both a lower ecotoxicity and potential of DBP formation [10]. Public Health 2020, 17, 5031; doi:10.3390/ijerph17145031 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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