Aquatic systems toxicity

In several cases, such as shellfish areas and aquatic reserves, the usual water quaUty parameters do not apply because they are nonspecific as to detrimental effects on aquatic life. Eor example, COD is an overall measure of organic content, but it does not differentiate between toxic and nontoxic organics. In these cases, a species diversity index has been employed as related to either free-floating or benthic organisms. The index indicates the overall condition to the aquatic environment. It is related to the number of species in the sample. The higher the species diversity index, the more productive the aquatic system. The species diversity index is computed by the equation K- = (S — 1)/logjg I, where S is the number of species and /the total number of individual organisms counted. 

The pH of rainwater is normally about 6 but can be reduced significantly by absorption of acidic exhaust gases from power stations, industrial combustion or other processes, and vehicles. Acids may also enter the waterways as a component of industrial effluent. In addition to the direct adverse effects on aquatic systems (Table 16.12) low pH can result in the leaching of toxic metals from land, etc. 

Pyrethroids show very marked selective toxicity (Table 12.2). They are highly toxic to terrestrial and aquatic arthropods and to fish, but only moderately toxic to rodents, and less toxic still to birds. The selectivity ratio between bees and rodents is 10,000- to 100,000-fold with topical application of the insecticides. They therefore appear to be environmentally safe so far as terrestrial vertebrates are concerned. There are, inevitably, concerns about their possible side effects in aquatic systems, especially on invertebrates. 

Wastewaters containing chlorinated hydrocarbons (CHCs) are very toxic for aquatic system even at concentrations of ppm levels [1] thus, appropriate treatment technologies are required for processing them to non-toxic or more biologically amenable intermediates. Catalytic wet oxidation can offer an alternative approach to remove a variety of such toxic organic materials in wet streams. Numerous supported catalysts have been applied for the removal of aqueous organic wastes via heterogeneous wet catalysis [1,2]. 

The hydroxyl radical plays two essentially different roles (a) as a reactant mediating the transformations of xenobiotics and (b) as a toxicant that damages DNA. They are important in a number of environments (1) in aquatic systems under irradiation, (2) in the troposphere, which is discussed later, and (3) in biological systems in the context of superoxide dismutase and the role of iron. Hydroxyl radicals in aqueous media can be generated by several mechanisms ... 

This process shonld be considered in the light of the preceding comments on association. Many experiments on the recoverability, persistence, and toxicity of xenobiotics have used spiked samples that do not take into acconnt the cardinal issne of alterations in the contaminant that have taken place after deposition. This is termed aging, and shonld be evalnated critically in determining persistence. Some examples are given below as illnstration for both terrestrial and aquatic systems ... 

Hwang H-M, RE Hodson, DL Lewis (1989) Microbial degradation kinetics of toxic organic chemicals over a wide range of concentrations in natural aquatic systems. Environ Toxicol Chem 8 65-74. 

Absorption across biological membranes is often necessary for a chemical to manifest toxicity. In many cases several membranes need to be crossed and the structure of both the chemical and the membrane need to be evaluated in the process. The major routes of absorption are ingestion, inhalation, dermal and, in the case of exposures in aquatic systems, gills. Factors that influence absorption have been reviewed recently. Methods to assess absorption include in vivo, in vitro, various cellular cultures as well as modelling approaches. Solubility and permeability are barriers to absorption and guidelines have been developed to estimate the likelihood of candidate molecules being absorbed after oral administration. ... 

In aquatic systems dissolved aluminum species are toxic to fish. There exists a vast number of aluminum species, ranging from inorganic monomeric to complex colloidal. polymeric and organic complexes. A major problem, when studying aluminum species in water is that the species quickly convert one into the other (Fairman and Sanz-Medel 1995). 

Luoma, S. N. (1995). Prediction of metal toxicity in nature from bioassays. In Metal Speciation and Bioavailability in Aquatic Systems, eds. Tessier, A. and Turner, D. R., Vol. 3, IUPAC Series on Analytical and Physical Chemistry of Environmental Systems. Series eds. Buffle J. and van Leeuwen H. P., John Wiley Sons, Ltd, Chichester, pp. 609-659. 

Benzene and naphthalene sulfonate moieties are present in the structures of many dyes that can be found in large amounts in wastewaters from textile and food industries. Even if wastes are decolored before the final discharge, not enough attention is nowadays devoted to the identification of possible uncolored degradation products, potentially toxic, that form during the decolorization process and are discharged into the aquatic systems. Besides sulfonate derivatives, aromatic amines have also been reported as possible degradation products of dyes [109],... 

York and New England are devoid of fish due to the effects of acid rain. Indirect effects of the low pH values associated with acid rain also affect organisms. As noted in Table 13.1, one of the properties of an acid is the ability to dissolve certain metals. This has a profound effect on soil subjected to acid rain. Acid rain can mobilize metal ions such as aluminum, iron, and manganese in the basin surrounding a lake. This not only depletes the soil of these cations disrupting nutrient uptake in plants, but also introduces toxic metals into the aquatic system. 

Bromate has been classified as a human carcinogen by both the I/VRC (International Agency for the Research on Cancer) and the USEPA (United States Environmental Protection Agency) and is known to be toxic to fish and other aquatic life [11, 12]. Bromate could be produced in aquatic systems upon the oxidation of aqueous bromide. Controlled ozonation has been considered as an effective disinfectant tool in aquatic systems [13] but when sea water is subjected to ozonation, oxy-bromide ozonation by-products (OBP) are produced and these are important both in terms of their disinfection ability and also in relation to their potential toxicity. When seawater is oxidized, aqueous bromide (Br-) is initially converted to hypobro-mite (OBr ) which can then either be reduced back to bromide or oxidized further to bromate (Br03-) which is known to be toxic to fish and other aquatic life and classified as a human carcinogen. There has been thus a considerable interest in bromate analysis so that trace analysis of bromate in water has received considerable attention in recent years. 

---