Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

TOXICITY TESTING OF EFFLUENTS FROM PESTICIDE INDUSTRIES USING FISH MODEL

S.G. Ruparelia, Yogendra Verma, and M.C. Hargan

Abstract

Effluents from five different pesticide industries were tested for their toxicity using fish B. rerio and 48 hrs. toxicity factor (TF) values were determined. Fishes (Wt. 0.2 ± 0.1 g.; L 0.3 ± 0.05 cm) were exposed to a series of dilution of effluents (untreated and treated) for 48 hrs. and mortality was recorded at 2, 6, 24 and 48 hrs. The untreated effluents have shown higher toxicity factor (TF) value than that of respective treated effluent samples. The results of the study revealed that the treatment to the waste water has an influence in the reduction of toxicity of the effluent. The average TF value for the untreated effleunt was 90 and for treated sample it was found to be 6. However, the frequency distribution of toxicity factor have shown that the frequency number of TF 3 and 4 were found to be more, there-after the number decreased considerably. The result also suggest that the treated effluent samples from the pesticide industries were still toxic to fish and required further treatment/dilution.