FRESENIUS ENVIRONMENTAL BULLETIN, vol.15, pp.1115-1121, 2006 (SCI-Expanded)
This study investigated the acute toxicity of chemical dye production industry wastewaters by traditional and enrichment toxicity tests, and emphasized the importance of toxicity tests in wastewater discharge regulations. The enrichment toxicity tests are novel applications indicating whether there are potential toxicity or stimulation conditions. Different organisms were used including bacteria (floc and coliform bacteria), algae (Chlorella sp.), protozoans (Vorticella sp.) and fish (Lepistes sp.), to represent four trophic levels. The toxicity test results were compared with chemical analyses to identify the pollutants responsible for the toxicity in the effluent wastewater samples. In four cases, toxicity of the effluents could not be explained by using physicochemical analyses. The results clearly showed that the use of bioassay tests produce additional information about the toxicity potential of industrial discharges and effluents.