Phototoxicity identification by solid phase extraction and photoinduced toxicity to Daphnia magna

The photoinduced toxicity of several environmental pollutants (some Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons [PAHs]) is a potential threat to aquatic organisms. To identify the cause/s of photoinduced toxicity of a sample, it is not sufficient to simply analyze the content of some known phototoxic compounds; so far too few substances of environmental concern have ever been tested for their photoinduced toxicity. The PAHs as well as other known phototoxic compounds are hydrophobic and are expected to bind to C18 columns. The use of Solid Phase Extraction (SPE) is typically part of the procedure identifying any primary nonpolar toxicant/s, and adding phototoxicity tests to these manipulations would not substantially increase the workload. In this study, therefore, the difference in acute toxicity to Daphnia magna before and after 2 h of UV irradiation was determined for six PAHs. The ratio between EC50 values before and after UV irradiation ranged from 4.6 (for benzo-a-pyrene) to >244 (for 3, 4-benzofluoranthene), demonstrating that the UV enhances the PAH-toxicity. A further characterization technique using binding to Sep-Pak SPE C18 columns and recovery with methanol as an eluting agent was then tested in combination with UV irradiation. The mean recovered UV induced toxicity after binding and elution of the six PAHs was 119% according to the phototoxicity tests made. A linear relationship, between the log10 Kow values for the PAHs and the log10 for the concentration of methanol at peak elution was found. The combined use of C18 column separation and UV activation may, therefore, be used in toxicity identification evaluations (TIE) of organic phototoxic compounds.