Toxicity evaluation in a paper recycling mill effluent by coupling bioindicator of aging with the toxicity identification evaluation method in nematode Caenorhabditis elegans.

Toxicity identification evaluation (TIE) can be used to determine the specific toxicant(s) in industrial effluents. In the current study, the authors have attempted to combine the advantages of the model organism, Caenorhabditis elegans, with the virtues of the TIE technique, to evaluate and identify the toxicity on aging from a paper recycling mill effluent. The results indicate that only the toxicities from mixed cellulose (MC) filtration and EDTA treatment are similar to the baseline aging toxicity, suggesting that the suspect toxicants inducing aging toxicity may largely be the heavy metal substances in this industrial effluent. Examination of the accumulation of intestinal autofluorescence in adult animals further confirms that the short lifespans are actually due to accelerated aging. In addition, exposure to fractions of EDTA manipulations cannot result in severe defects of reproduction and locomotion behaviors in C. elegans. Moreover, high levels of Ca, Al, and Fe in the effluent may account for the severe toxicity on aging of exposed nematodes, by TIE assay. The study here provides a new method for evaluating environmental risk and identifying toxicant(s) from the industrial effluent using C. elegans.