Fate of glutaraldehyde in hospital wastewater and combined effects of glutaraldehyde and surfactants on aquatic organisms

• Published in: Environment international Vol. 31; no. 3; pp. 399 - 406
• Main Authors: Emmanuel, Evens, Hanna, Khalil, Bazin, Christine, Keck, Gérard, Clément, Bernard, Perrodin, Yves
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier Ltd 01-04-2005; Elsevier
• Subjects: Additive joint action; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Animals; Applied ecology; Applied sciences; Bioassays; Biodiversity and Ecology; Biological and medical sciences; Biological Assay; Daphnia; Disinfectants - analysis; Disinfectants - toxicity; Earth sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Ecotoxicology, biological effects of pollution; Engineering and environment geology. Geothermics; Environmental Monitoring; Environmental Sciences; Exact sciences and technology; Fresh water environment; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Glutaral - analysis; Glutaral - toxicity; Glutaraldehyde; Hospital wastewater; Hospitals; Medical Waste Disposal; Models, Theoretical; Other wastewaters; Pollution; Pollution, environment geology; Risk Assessment; Surface-Active Agents; Surfactants; Vibrio; Vibrio fischeri; Waste Disposal, Fluid; Wastewaters; Water treatment and pollution; Additive joint action; Glutaraldehyde; Hospital wastewater; Surfactants; Bioassays; Toxicity; Cladocera; Cationic surfactant; Glutaral; Synergism; Crustacea; Freshwater environment; Antagonism; Vibrio fischeri; Daphnia; Bacteria; Hospital; Waste water discharge; Branchiopoda; Organic compounds; Ground water; Ecotoxicology; Non ionic surfactant; Aldehyde; Anionic surfactant; Arthropoda; Environment impact; Antiseptic; Surface water; Vibrionaceae; Water pollution; Invertebrata; Disinfecting agent; BIOASSAYS; HOSPITAL WASTEWATER; TOXICOLOGIE; GLUTARALDEHYDE; ADDITIVE JOINT ACTION; SURFACTANTS
• ISSN: 0160-4120; 1873-6750
• DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2004.08.011

Glutaraldehyde (GA), an aliphatic dialdehyde disinfectant, and surfactants, one of the major components of detergents, are widely used in hospitals in order to eliminate pathogenic organisms causing nosocomial infectious diseases. After their use, disinfectants and surfactants reach the wastewater network together. The discharge of chemical compounds from hospital activities into wastewater is also a well-known problem, causing pollution of water resources and constituting an ecological risk for aquatic organisms. In this study, the chemistry and toxicology of GA and surfactant mixtures were reviewed in order to estimate their fate in aquatic ecosystems. Furthermore, their joint effects on aquatic organisms were experimentally assessed in the laboratory. A simple model of the additive joint action of toxicants was used to determine combined acute toxicity effects on the bacteria luminescence and
Daphnia mobility of three mixtures containing GA at 1.5×EC
50 24 h [in mg/L] on
Daphnia and anionic, cationic and nonionic surfactants at twice their critical micellar concentration (CMC). The mixture of GA and a cationic surfactant gave an EC
50 30 min on
Vibrio fischeri of 0.158%, with a concentration of 0.04 mg GA/L and 1.04 mg CTAB/L, which provided an additive action. The interaction between GA and an anionic surfactant on
V. fischeri produced an antagonistic joint action with an EC
50 30 min of 3.95%, containing 1.06 mg GA/L and 33.2 mg SDS/L. A synergistic action with an EC
50 30 min of 8.4% on
V. fischeri was observed for the mixture containing GA and a nonionic surfactant. Antagonistic interactions were observed for the joint action between GA and the surfactants studied on
Daphnia. The mixture of GA and CTAB was more toxic (EC
50 24 h=0.02%) than the two other mixtures (EC
50 24 h GA+SDS=6%; EC
50 24 h GA+TX 100=10%). This study provides new data on the toxicity of certain hospital pollutants entering the aquatic environment and detected in surface and groundwaters. It is necessary to study the joint effects of GA and surfactant mixtures following chronic and sublethal standard bioassays in order to estimate the contribution of the additive joint action models in assessing the environmental risk of hospital wastewater (HW).