DICATAM-Department of Civil, Environmental, Architectural Engineering and Mathematics, University of Brescia, Via Branze 43, I-25123 Brescia, Italy.
MISTRAAL Interdepartmental University Research Center-MISTRAL-Integrated Study Models for the Protection of Health and Prevention in Life and Work Environments, DSCS, Department of Clinical and Experimental Sciences, University of Brescia, Viale Europa 11, I-25123 Brescia, Italy.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Jun 25;18(13):6827. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18136827.
The assessment of the actual impact of discharged wastewater on the whole ecosystem and, in turn, on human health requires the execution of bioassays. In effect, based on the chemical characterization alone, the synergistic/antagonistic effect of mixtures of pollutants is hardly estimable. The aim of this work was to evaluate the applicability of a battery of bioassays and to suggest a smart procedure for results representation. Two real wastewater treatment plants were submitted to analytical campaigns. Several baseline toxicity assays were conducted, together with tests for the determination of endocrine activity, genetic toxicity and carcinogenicity of wastewater. A "traffic light" model was adopted for an easy-to-understand visualization of the results. Although the legal prescriptions of chemical parameters are fully complied with, bioassays show that a certain biological activity still residues in the treated effluents. Moreover, influent and effluent responses are not always appreciably different. Some tests employing human cells were revealed to be only partially adequate for environmental applications. An interesting and helpful development of the present approach would consist in the estimation of biological equivalents of toxicity, as shown for the estrogenic compound 17-β-estradiol.
评估实际排放废水对整个生态系统，进而对人类健康的影响需要进行生物测定。实际上，仅根据化学特征，污染物混合物的协同/拮抗作用是很难估计的。本工作的目的是评估一系列生物测定的适用性，并提出一种智能的结果表示方法。将两个实际的废水处理厂进行了分析性实验。进行了几项基线毒性试验，以及测定废水内分泌活性、遗传毒性和致癌性的试验。采用“红绿灯”模型对结果进行易于理解的可视化。尽管完全符合法定的化学参数规定，但生物测定表明，处理后的废水中仍存在一定的生物活性。此外，进水和出水的反应并不总是明显不同。一些用人细胞进行的测试被证明仅部分适用于环境应用。本方法的一个有趣和有益的发展将包括估计毒性的生物学等效物，如雌激素化合物 17-β-雌二醇所示。
