Bioluminescence inhibition assays for toxicity screening of wood extractives and biocides in paper mill process waters

Abstract

The risk associated with wood extractives, biocides, and other additives in pulp and paper mill effluents was evaluated by performing a characterization of process waters and effluents in terms of toxicity and chemical analysis. The individual toxicity of 10 resin acids, two unsaturated fatty acids, and three biocides was estimated by measuring the bioluminescence inhibition with a ToxAlert 100 system. Median effective concentration values (EC50) of 4.3 to 17.9, 1.2 to 1.5, and 0.022 to 0.50 mg/L were obtained, respectively. Mixtures of these three families of compounds showed antagonistic effects. Chemical analysis of process waters was performed by liquid chromatography- and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Biocides such as 2-(thiocyanomethylthio)-benzotiazole (TCMTB) (EC50 = 0.022 mg/L) and 2,2-dibromo-3-nitrilpropionamide (DBNPA) (EC50 = 0.50 mg/L) were the most toxic compounds tested and were detected at concentrations of 16 and 59 microg/L, respectively, in a closed-circuit recycling paper mill. Process waters from kraft pulp mills, printing paper mills, and packing board paper mills showed the highest concentration of resin acids (up to 400 microg/L) and accounted for inhibition percentages up to 100%. Detergent degradation products such as nonylphenol (NP) and octylphenol (OP) and the plasticizer bisphenol A (BPA) were also detected in the waters at levels of 0.6 to 10.6, 0.3 to 1.4, and 0.7 to 187 microg/L, respectively. However, once these waters were biologically treated, the concentration of detected organic compounds diminished and the toxicity decreased in most cases to values of inhibition lower than 20%.

Wastewater Treatment and Reclamation: A Review of Pulp and Paper Industry Practices and Opportunities

“…Resin acids are very resistant to chemical degradation due to their stable tricyclic structure (Dethlefs and Stan 1996). They are thought to be the main contributors to the toxicity of the pulp mill effluents (Makris and Banerjee 2002;Rigol et al 2004) and have been reported to end up in sediments of the receiving water bodies (Dethlefs and Stan 1996;Rämänen et al 2010). In addition to substances originating in the wood, there may be situations in which P&P wastewater contains toxins from other sources.…”

Medicinal chemistry and pharmacology of genus Tripterygium (Celastraceae)

“…As such, it is of concern because of its detrimental effects on fish, including liver dysfunction, hemolysis of red blood cells, organ and tissue lesions, and genotoxic and neurotoxic effects (Zheng and Nicholson, 1998;Rabergh et al, 1999;Pacheco and Santos, 2002;Teles et al, 2004). It seems to be less toxic than most other resin acids (Peng and Roberts, 2000;Rigol et al, 2004). Beier et al (2000) summarize the biological effects of this compound.…”

A review on advantages of implementing luminescence inhibition test (Vibrio fischeri) for acute toxicity prediction of chemicals

“…IC T and IT T are luminescence values for control and test samples measured after FT_ minutes exposure time and KF is the correction factor based on the control/ blank. Various researchers have used variable exposure time, e.g., 5 min (DeZwart and Sloof, 1983), 15 min (Rigol et al, 2004), and 30 min (Loibner et al, 2004). The concentration of the toxicant (mg/L) which caused a 50% reduction in light after exposure for FT_ minutes is designated as the EC 50 .…”

“…It has been used for measuring short and long-term photoinduced toxicity of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) (El-Alawi et al, 2002). Bioluminescence inhibition assay has been applied as a sensitive and rapid screening tool for determining the whole effluent toxicity for various industrial effluents, i.e., dye wastewater from textile industry (Davere and Bahadir, 1994); and whitewater and effluent from paper mill (Rigol et al, 2004). Salizzato et al (1998) successfully applied the solid phase assay to lagoon sediments (< 63 Am) using a modified protocol for correlating the toxic units (TU = 100/EC 50 ) for sediments obtained from a lagoon to the composition of organic and inorganic toxicants.…”