Assessment of organic pollution

Similarly to sewage waters, also in industrial wastewaters the determination of COD by means of potassium dichromate in sulphuric acid is used for the evaluation of total organic pollution. With regard to the high content of chlorides in industrial wastewaters, it is necessary to pay attention to the correctness of its determination and appropriate methods for its elimination. 

The BOD5 value and other parameters characterizing wastewaters are important also for assessment of the possibilities of biological wastewater treatment. Wastewaters from inorganic based industry (e.g. from the production plants of industrial fertilizers, production of soda, from ass and ceramic industries) whose BOD5 values are lower than 50 mg 1 cannot be biologically treated [40-42]. 

Biological treatment is not recommended for wastewaters with BODj ranging from 50 to 100 mg 1 because insufficient quantity of biomass is formed from the organic substances present. However, these wastewaters can be treated when mixed with wastewaters from urban units. 

Concentrated wastewaters with high BOD5 values (of the order of units of g 1, e.g. from the production of synthetic resins, extraction of caprolactam, sulphite waste liquors) must be sufficiently diluted before biological treatment. 

Wastewaters containing organic substances which undergo fast biological degradation are called digested waters. They are entirely mineralized within quite a short time interval when properly diluted and under aerobic conditions. 

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Ma, M. Wang, Y. Wang Z. 1999, Sample pretreatment for toxic assessment of organic pollutants in river water. Huanjing Kexue/Errviron. Sci. 20 80-83. 

HUsenhoff, W.L. (1988) Rapid field assessment of organic pollution with a family level biotic index. Journal of the North American Benthological Society, 7(1) 65-68. 

Farre M, Pasini O, Alonso MC, Castillo M, Barcelo D (2001) Toxicity assessment of organic pollution in wastewaters using a bacterial biosensor. Anal Chim Acta 426 155-165... 

At the practical level, an ideal mechanistic biomarker should be simple to use, sensitive, relatively specific, stable, and usable on material that can be obtained by nondestructive sampling (e.g., blood or skin). A tall order, no doubt, and no biomarker yet developed has all of these attributes. However, the judicious use of combinations of biomarkers can overcome the shortcomings of individual assays. The main point to emphasize is that the resources so far invested in the development of biomarker technology for environmental risk assessment has been very small (cf the investment in biomarkers for use in medicine). Knowledge of toxic mechanisms of organic pollutants is already substantial (especially of pesticides), and it grows apace. The scientific basis is already there for technological advance it all comes down to a question of investment. 

WHOI-2 1984 Woods Hole Oceanographic Inst., Woods Hole, Massachusetts Zeep RG (1980) Assessing the photochemistry of organic pollutants in aquatic environments. In Haque R (ed) Dynamics exposure and hazard assessment of toxic chemicals. Ann Arbor Sci, Ann Arbor, Michigan, pp 69-110... 

Zepp, R. G., Assessing the photochemistry of organic pollutants in aquatic environments . In Dynamics, Exposure and Hazard Assessment of Toxic Chemicals, R. Haque, Ed., Ann Arbor Science, Ann Arbor, MI, 1980, pp. 69-109. 

Hung H et al (2010) Atmospheric monitoring of organic pollutants in the Arctic under the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) 1993-2006. Sci Total Environ 408 2854-2873... 

Different types of reactive species are produced upon irradiation of CDOM. Their contribution to the fate of organic pollutants in the aquatic environment can be assessed on the basis of the reported literature. It generally... 

Domenech, X. Ayllon, J. A. Peral, J. Use of Physicochemical Parameters to Assess the Environmental Fate of Organic Pollutants The Fugacity Model, J. Chem. Educ. 2006, 83, 237-240. 

Albalat, A., Potrykus, J., Pempkowiak, J., Porte, C. Assessment of organotin pollution along the Polish coast (Baltic Sea) by using mussels and fish as sentinel organisms. Chemosphere 47, 165-171 (2002)... 

Table 3.2.1 Different examples of organic pollution assessment by combined approaches...

The biogeochemistry of organic pollutants in marine systems is of enormous economic and environmental Impact. The environmental behavior of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB s) has been studied rather extensively because of their detrimental effects on human health and on living marine resources (30-32). As discussed in the chapters by J.W. Farrington et, due to recent advances in gas capillary chromotographic methods, it is now possible to study the biogeochemistry of individual PCB s rather than that of combined industrial mixtures of PCB s (33-36). In order to realistically assess the risks to animal health, it is important to be able to work with individual PCB levels rather than with unresolved mixtures because individual PCB s can vary greatly in terms of toxicity (37). 

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