Toxic Effects of Copper-Based and Synthetic Organic Pesticides on Activated Sludge

✍ Scribed by Berrak Erol Nalbur; Sevil Çalışkan Eleren; Semih Şahin; Ufuk Alkan

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 392 KB
• Volume: 40
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1863-0650
• DOI: 10.1002/clen.201000601

✦ Synopsis

Toxic effects of five commonly used pesticides on the biomass of a municipal activated sludge system were determined on the basis of the reduction in the oxygen uptake rate (OUR) and specific oxygen uptake rate (SOUR). Toxicity levels of the selected pesticides were determined by employing a modified OECD 209 (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) method which was performed as batch experiments using a respirometer. Copper sulphate (CuSO 4 Á 5 H 2 O), copper oxychloride (Cu 2 Cl(OH) 3 ), copper calcium oxychloride (CaCu 3 Cl 2 (OH) 6 ) as copper-based pesticides and chlorsulphuron (C 12 H 12 ClN 5 O 4 S), 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) (C 8 H 6 Cl 2 O 3 ) as synthetic organic pesticides were selected for the experiments. The EC 50 values were determined to be 78, 249 and 281 mg/L for CuSO 4 Á 5 H 2 O, Cu 2 Cl(OH) 3 and CaCu 3 Cl 2 (OH) 6 , respectively. Corresponding values for C 12 H 12 ClN 5 O 4 S and 2,4-D were 860 and 3664 mg/L, respectively. Results indicated that toxicity effects of copper-based pesticides were higher than that of synthetic organic pesticides. CuSO 4 Á 5 H 2 O was found to exert the highest toxicity among the copper-based pesticides, whereas, C 12 H 12 ClN 5 O 4 S was determined to be the most toxic among the organic pesticides on activated sludge biomass.