Health-hazard evaluation of waste water using bioassays: preliminary concepts

Technical Report · Mon Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 1988

OSTI ID:6704203

Easterly, C E; Glass, L R; Jones, T D; Owen, B A; Schenley, R L

Effluents from waste-water treatment facilities are discharged as a complex mixture of numerous chemical substances, which may include cytotoxic, carcinogenic, and mutagenic compounds. Historically, Federal and State Agencies have relied upon chemical-based analyses to set and enforce regulatory limits for these effluents. One problem with the approach is that many potentially hazardous chemicals may not be quantifiable in complex chemical effluents but are none the less discharged into the environment. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has recently established a research program to determine if a bioassay approach for evaluating the potential adverse human health effects from exposure to complex mixtures might supplement conventional chemical analysis for setting regulatory limits for waste-waters. This report summarizes a bioassay testing strategy for characterizing cytotoxic and mutagenic activity of various waste-water effluents. The use of a relative potency framework for assessing complex mixtures for potential health hazards is addressed.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA). Health and Safety Research Div.
• OSTI ID: 6704203
• Report Number(s): PB-88-243860/XAB
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

520200* -- Environment
Aquatic-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
550900 -- Pathology
59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
BIOASSAY
BIOLOGY
CARCINOGENS
CYTOLOGY
EVALUATION
HAZARDS
HEALTH HAZARDS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
LIQUID WASTES
MUTAGENS
NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PUBLIC HEALTH
STATE GOVERNMENT
TOXICITY
WASTE WATER
WASTES
WATER