Toxicity assessment of treated wastewater using cultured human cell lines.

Bioassay using cultured human cell lines was applied to an effluent of a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in Sapporo to assess their toxicity, and in order to investigate the fate of toxicity in the WWTP, bioassay of the water samples from several points in WWTP (influent, effluent, return flow from thickener, from dewatering process and from incineration process) was performed. We also applied bioassay to the mixture of the activated sludge from the investigated plant and artificial sewage. These results showed that the toxicity of the effluent was more intensive than the influent, and organic matter released from activated sludge bacteria during their decay process contributed to the increase of toxicity in the effluent.