Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Use of short-term bioassays in estimating human health hazards of waste-water effluents

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:6767981

Effluents from waste-water treatment facilities are discharged as a complex mixture of numerous chemical substances, which may include cytotoxic, carcinogenic, and mutagenic compounds. 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 paper 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:
Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, OH (USA). Health Effects Research Lab.
OSTI ID:
6767981
Report Number(s):
PB-88-220686/XAB; EPA-600/D-88/132
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English