Evaluation of combined effects of toxic chemicals by target screening and biological response tests

Abstract

A method for evaluating the combined effects of chemicals is the whole-mixture approach, which evaluates a water sample containing a mixture of several chemicals. In this approach, chemical analysis is important to identify the cause of toxicity. However, among the numerous chemicals present in wastewater and river water, it is difficult to identify the toxic chemicals using conventional chemical analysis methods. Therefore, a comprehensive analytical method capable of detecting many chemicals is required. This study focused on target screening methods for organic contaminants, especially in chemical analysis; introduced a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer (GC-MS) database that could identify nearly 1000 organic compounds; and developed a rapid screening method. Furthermore, the combined effects on water samples using the target screening methods and biological response tests were evaluated.