Ecotoxicity Analysis: What is it and What are the Advantages?

Over the past few years, with growing environmental concerns, there has been an increasing demand for comprehensive and cross-cutting solutions for sustainability. It is in this sense that ecotoxicological tests are proving essential. These tests are used to assist in determining the hazardous characteristics of waste, allowing companies to understand the environmental impact and negative effects of their activity.

While isolated chemical analyses only allow for the quantification of individual substances in the sample, ecotoxicological studies provide information on the overall toxicity of the sample, understanding the consequences that a studied element may have on populations and ecosystems, thus becoming an asset in evaluating the toxicity of company substances.

What do ecotoxicity analyses consist of and how are they conducted?

Ecotoxicity analyses are tests in which organisms from different trophic levels are used over a certain period of time, and depending on this period, the test can be considered chronic or acute.

At CVR, in ecotoxicity analyses, we use the microcrustacean Daphnia magna, some species of microalgae, and the bacterium Vibrio fisheri.

The sample is brought into contact with these organisms, and through mortality, it is possible to perceive the toxicity of the sample. At the end of each test, the EC50 is calculated, which corresponds to the concentration of the tested substance that causes a lethal effect on 50% of the organisms during the exposure period.

What types of samples can ecotoxicological tests be applied to? Which sectors do they cover?

The typology of samples to which these tests can be applied is quite diverse. Ecotoxicity studies can be applied to soluble chemical substances under test conditions, industrial effluents, treated or untreated wastewater, aqueous extracts and leachates, freshwater (surface and groundwater), eluates from freshwater sediment, among others. Taking this into account, these analyses can be applied to various sectors of activity.

CVR conducts these tests according to the specificities and needs of client companies. The tests are conducted based on standards such as ISO 6341:2012, OECD 202, ISO 8692:2012, OECD 201, and ISO 11348-3:2007.