An Approach to Evaluation of the Effect of Bioremediation on Biological Activity of Environmental Contaminants: Dechlorination of Polychlorinated Biphenyls

The effectiveness of bioremediation efforts is assessed traditionally from the loss of the chemical of interest. In some cases, analytical techniques are coupled with evaluation of toxicity to organisms representative of those found in the affected environment or surrogate organisms. Little is known, however, about the effect of remediation of environmental chemicals on potential toxicity to mammalian organisms. We discuss both an approach that employs mammalian cell system bioassays and the criteria for selection of the assays. This approach has been used to evaluate the biological response to mixtures of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) before and after remediation by reductive dechlorination. The dechlorination process used results in accumulation of congeners substituted in only the ortho and para positions and containing fewer chlorines than the starting mixtures. Evaluation of the dechlorinated mixture reveals a loss of biological activity that could be ascribed to coplanar PCBs not containing chlorine in the ortho positions. Conversely, biological activity associated with ortho-substituted PCB congeners is unaffected or increased by remediation. Thus, the results of the bioassays are consistent with the remediation-induced change in the profile of PCB congeners and the known mechanisms of action of PCBs. The results emphasize a need for evaluation of the products of remediation for biological activity in mammalian systems. Furthermore, the approach outlined demonstrates the potential to assess the impact of remediation on a range of biological activities in mammalian cells and thus to estimate positive and negative effects of remediation strategies on toxicity. Future needs in this area of research include assays to evaluate biological effects under conditions of exposure that mimic those found in the environment and models to extrapolate effects to assess risk to people and wildlife

Degradation of haloaromatic compounds

An ever increasing number of halogenated organic compounds has been produced by industry in the last few decades. These compounds are employed as biocides, for synthetic polymers, as solvents, and as synthetic intermediates. Production figures are often incomplete, and total production has frequently to be extrapolated from estimates for individual countries. Compounds of this type as a rule are highly persistent against biodegradation and belong, as "recalcitrant" chemicals, to the class of so-called xenobiotics. This term is used to characterise chemical substances which have no or limited structural analogy to natural compounds for which degradation pathways have evolved over billions of years. Xenobiotics frequently have some common features. e.g. high octanol/water partitioning coefficients and low water solubility which makes for a high accumulation ratio in the biosphere (bioaccumulation potential). Recalcitrant compounds therefore are found accumulated in mammals, especially in fat tissue, animal milk supplies and also in human milk. Highly sophisticated analytical techniques have been developed for the detection of organochlorines at the trace and ultratrace level

Reductive debromination of the commercial polybrominated biphenyl mixture firemaster BP6 by anaerobic microorganisms from sediments.

Anaerobic microorganisms eluted from three sediments, one contaminated with polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs) and two contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls, were compared for their ability to debrominate the commercial PBB mixture Firemaster. These microorganisms were incubated with reduced anaerobic mineral medium and noncontaminated sediment amended with Firemaster. Firemaster averages six bromines per biphenyl molecule; four of the bromines are substituted in the meta or para position. The inocula from all three sources were able to debrominate the meta and para positions. Microorganisms from the Pine River (St. Louis, Mich.) contaminated with Firemaster, the Hudson River (Hudson Falls, N.Y.) contaminated with Aroclor 1242, and Silver Lake (Pittsfield, Mass.) contaminated with Aroclor 1260 removed 32, 12, and 3% of the meta plus para bromines, respectively, after 32 weeks of incubation. This suggests that previous environmental exposure to PBBs enhances the debromination capability of the sediment microbial community through selection for different strains of microorganisms. The Pine River inoculum removed an average of 1.25 bromines per biphenyl molecule during a 32-week incubation period, resulting in a mixture potentially more accessible to aerobic degradation processes. No ortho bromine removal was observed. However, when Firemaster was incubated with Hudson River microorganisms that had been repeatedly transferred on a pyruvate medium amended with Aroclor 1242, 17% of the meta and para bromines were removed after 16 weeks of incubation and additional debromination products, including 2-bromobiphenyl and biphenyl, were detected. This suggests the possibility for ortho debromination, since all components of the Firemaster mixture have at least one ortho-substituted bromine.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS