title: Evaluation of the genotoxicity of municipal sewage effluent using the marine worm Platynereis dumerilii (Polychaeta: Nereidae).
abstract: Samples of settled (primary) effluent were collected from a municipal sewage treatment works at Newton Abbot, Devon, UK, a site which discharges primary effluent via long sea pipeline into the English Channel (minimum of 200-fold initial dilution). Sewage samples were collected during the period February-April 1995 and were analysed for standard physico-chemical parameters (ammonia, chemical oxygen demand, conductivity, non-purgeable organic carbon and settled solids). Samples were also tested for cytotoxicity, genotoxicity, and for developmental effects in the embryo-larval stages of the marine worm, Platynereis dumerilii. Exposure to sewage concentrations of > or = 10% (v/v) in seawater at 20 +/- 1 degrees C led to a marked reduction in normal embryo-larval development (7 h EC50 values from 10% to 18% v/v, n = 5). There was also evidence of a simultaneous delay in the cell cycle progression (as determined by sister chromatid differential staining) following embryo-larval exposures to sewage concentrations of > or = 10% (v/v). Following the calculation of the Maximum Tolerated Dose (MTD), based on cytotoxic and developmental effects, cells from the same embryo-larvae were analysed for chromosomal aberrations (CAs). Results were consistent for all samples tested, demonstrating the absence of cytogenetic damage following the in vivo exposure of polychaete embryo-larvae to settled sewage.
authors.affiliation: Brixham Environmental Laboratory, ZENECA Ltd., Devon, UK.
authors.forename: A N
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Jha
authors.forename: T H
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Hutchinson
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Mackay
authors.forename: B M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Elliott
authors.forename: D R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Dixons
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002869:Chromosome Aberrations; D004625:Embryo, Nonmammalian / Q000187:drug effects; D007814:Larva / Q000187:drug effects; D009152:Mutagenicity Tests / Q000379:methods*; D011077:Polychaeta / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development; D012722:Sewage / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000737:chemistry; D012854:Sister Chromatid Exchange; D006113:United Kingdom
chemical_list: D012722:Sewage