Increase of cytotoxicity during wastewater chlorination: Impact factors and surrogates

Toxic and harmful disinfection byproducts (DBPs) were formed during wastewater chlorination. It was recently suggested that cytotoxicity to mammalian cells reflects risks posed by chlorinated wastewater. Here, ATP assays were performed to evaluate the cytotoxicity to mammalian cells. Chlorination significantly increased cytotoxicity of treated wastewater. Factors affecting cytotoxicity formation during wastewater chlorination were investigated. Quenching with sodium thiosulfate and ascorbic acid decreased the formed cytotoxicity, while ammonium kept the cytotoxicity stable. The chlorine dose required for the maximum cytotoxicity increase was dramatically affected by DOC and ammonia concentrations. The maximum cytotoxicity increase, defined as the cytotoxicity formation potential (CtFP), occurred when wastewater was treated for 48h with a chlorine dose of 2·DOC+11·NH₃N+10 (mg-Cl₂/L). During chlorination, the amounts of AOX formation was found to be significantly correlated with cytotoxicity formation when no DBPs were destroyed. AOX formation could be used as a surrogate to estimate cytotoxicity increase during wastewater chlorination. Besides, the CtFP of 14 treated wastewater samples was assessed ranged from 5.4-20.4mg-phenol/L. The CtFP could be estimated from UV₂₅₄ of treated wastewater because CtFP and UV₂₅₄ were strongly correlated.