ASSESSMENT OF TOXICITY AND GENOTOXICITY OF INDUSTRIAL EFFLUENTS IN SOUTHERN ITALY

The increase of industrial sites triggered the need for assessment of release of countless man-made chemicals to the biosphere and the potentially harmful impact they can determine alone or in combination toward biological integrity. Effluents from the factories of the Industrial Development Area of Caserta (Southern Italy) were tested to evaluate their toxic and genotoxic effects on biota of receiving environments. Toxicity tests were performed on reducers (the bacterium Vibrio fischeri), producers (the alga Selenastrum capricornutum) and consumers including a rotifer (Brachionus calyciflorus), a cladoceran (Daphnia magna), an anostracan (Thamnocephalus platyurus) to evaluate effects on freshwater organisms from different trophic levels. Furthermore SOS Chromotest, a bacterial colorimetric assay with E.coli PQ37, was carried out to assess genotoxic activity of these industrial effluents, detecting DNA-damaging agents. Results showed that some industrial effluents are only toxic for organisms of the aquatic chain whereas others are highly genotoxic for E.coli PQ37. The present study suggests that different kinds of bioassays such as toxic and genotoxic tests offer complementary tools and approaches that can be applied to measure hazard and risk of xenobiotics on the environment