SYMPOSIA PAPER Published: 01 January 1981
STP34166S

Reliability of the Bacterial Luminescence Assay for Determination of the Toxicity of Pure Compounds and Complex Effluents

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The bacterial luminescence toxicity assay has been under development for 2 years. The assay procedure has been significantly improved in that five dilutions of a toxicant or effluent can be assayed simultaneously along with a control. A median effective concentration (EC50) can be generated 30 min after sample collection. The reproducibility of the assay using sodium lauryl sulfate as a standard displayed a coefficient of variation of 15 to 20 percent. The data presented compare Microtox EC50 data for pure compounds and literature data on median lethal concentrations (LC50) for fish. In addition, over 50 complex effluent samples were assayed with Microtox. These same samples were assayed simultaneously using standard fish testing procedures. The data show that a good correlation exists between the bacterial luminescence assay and conventional testing procedures.

Author Information

Bulich, AA
Beckman Instruments, Inc., Carlsbad, Calif.
Greene, MW
Beckman Instruments, Inc., Carlsbad, Calif.
Isenberg, DL
Beckman Instruments, Inc., Carlsbad, Calif.
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Details
Developed by Committee: D19
Pages: 338–347
DOI: 10.1520/STP34166S
ISBN-EB: 978-0-8031-4803-1
ISBN-13: 978-0-8031-0799-1