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Organic pollutants and ambient severity for the drinking water source of western Taihu Lake

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Abstract

Measurement of the organic compounds found in western Taihu Lake and evaluation of the ambient severity (AS) of the water using multimedia environmental goals (MEG) was conducted. The comet assay and the antioxidant enzyme approach were used to test the potential toxicity of water samples on the microalgae Euglena gracilis. Total concentrations of 25 organic pollutants in samples from two sites were 6.700 and 14.655 μg/l, respectively, with a calculated total ambient severity (TAS) of less than 1 and therefore minimal risk to human and ecological health. Organic extracts from the samples at these two sites was found to induce dose-dependent DNA damage on microalgae cells. DNA damage together with changes in superoxide dismutase (SOD) and peroxidase (POD) activities indicated that the potential pollutant toxicity was far higher at one of the two sites than at the other site. The comet assay combined with the activities of antioxidant enzymes may be of value as a biomarker for presence of organic pollutants in drinking water sources.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program, No. 2008CB418003), National Natural Science Foundation of China (31072217), National Major Project of Science & Technology Ministry of China (No. 2008ZX07101-004, 2008ZX07526-003) and State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology (KF2009-19). Great thanks go to Professor Nils Ekelund, Mid Sweden University, Sundsvall, Sweden for the gift of microalga.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Xianlin Campus, 163 Xianlin Avenue, Nanjing, 210046, People’s Republic of China

    Xiangyu Gao, Xiaorong Shi, Yibin Cui, Mei Li, Rongfei Zhang & Xin Qian

  2. Department of Biology, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong, China

    Yue Jiang

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  1. Xiangyu Gao
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  2. Xiaorong Shi
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Correspondence to Yibin Cui or Mei Li.

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Gao, X., Shi, X., Cui, Y. et al. Organic pollutants and ambient severity for the drinking water source of western Taihu Lake. Ecotoxicology 20, 959–967 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-011-0681-6

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