1. Comparative Mammalian Cell Cytotoxicity of Wastewaters for Agricultural Reuse after Ozonation
- Author
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Shengkun Dong, Michael J. Plewa, Jinfeng Lu, and Thanh H. Nguyen
- Subjects
Halogenation ,Waste management ,Swine ,Chemistry ,0208 environmental biotechnology ,Portable water purification ,02 engineering and technology ,General Chemistry ,Wastewater ,010501 environmental sciences ,Reuse ,01 natural sciences ,Water Purification ,020801 environmental engineering ,Disinfection ,Mammalian cell ,Animals ,Environmental Chemistry ,Cytotoxicity ,Effluent ,Agricultural reuse ,Disinfectants ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences - Abstract
Reusing wastewater in agriculture is becoming increasingly common, which necessitates disinfection to ensure reuse safety. However, disinfectants can react with wastewater constituents to form disinfection byproducts (DBPs), many of which are toxic and restrict the goal of safe reuse. Our objective was to benchmark the induction of mammalian cell cytotoxicity after ozonation against chlorination for three types of real wastewaters: municipal secondary effluent and two sources of minimally treated swine farm wastewaters. A new method to evaluate samples of suspected high cytotoxicity was devised. For the secondary effluent, ozonation reduced the cytotoxicity by as much as 10 times; chlorination lowered the cytotoxicity only when followed by dechlorination. The swine farm wastewaters were up to 2000 times more cytotoxic than the secondary effluent, and the highest reduction in cytotoxicity was 17 times as achieved by ozonation. These results indicate that secondary effluent is preferred over swine wastewaters for agricultural reuse regardless of the tested disinfectants. Ozonation consistently reduced the cytotoxicity of both the full strength and the organic extracts of all tested wastewaters more than chlorination. The only significant correlation was observed in the secondary wastewater between total haloacetonitriles and cytotoxicity. While the association of reduced toxicity with the modification or reduction of specific compound(s) is unclear, regulated DBPs may not be the primary forcing agents.
- Published
- 2016
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