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ASSESSMENT OF INTEGRAL TOXICITY OF WATER RESOURCES BY INSTRUMENTAL METHODS OF ANALYSIS

Vladimir Sibirtsev, Roman Olekhnovich, E.O. Samuylova

Abstract

The increase in the number of potentially toxic substances has led to a more complex task of determining the toxicity of water resources. This is due to an increase in the number of necessary techniques for the separation, identification and subsequent analysis of individual components. At the same time, the determination of quantitative relationships between individual components does not allow us to determine precisely whether these concentrations are sufficient to classify the water samples under study as toxic to the integral characteristics. The most acceptable and adequate solution to this problem is currently the use of test biosystems. However, standard procedures for assessing the overall survival of microorganisms give only "static" information about lethal disturbances in the life of test organisms. To overcome the above drawbacks, a biotesting technique has been proposed that uses various instrumental analysis methods to evaluate the integral degree of toxicity. The proposed methodology is based on the simultaneous use of potentiometry, conductometry and fluorometry methods. It was shown that by measuring the electrochemical potential it is possible to evaluate the dynamics of changes in the vital activity of test microorganisms in the presence of toxic components. Fluorometric method allows estimate the DNA accumulated in the process of vital activity and, accordingly, the number of test microorganisms. It also allows estimating the change in the primary and spatial structure of the genome of these microorganisms.

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