چکیده (انگلیسی):

Here we characterize the toxicity of environmentally-relevant forms of engineered nanomaterials
(ENMs), which can transform during wastewater treatment and persist in
aqueous effluents and biosolids. In an aerosol exposure scenario, cytotoxicity and genotoxicity
of effluents and biosolids from lab-scale sequencing batch reactors (SBRs) to A549
human lung epithelial cells were examined. The SBRs were dosed with nanoAg, nano zerovalent
iron (NZVI), nanoTiO2 and nanoCeO2 at sequentially increasing concentrations from
0.1 to 20 mg/L. Toxicities were compared to outputs from SBRs dosed with ionic/bulk
analogs, undosed SBRs, and pristine ENMs. Pristine nanoAg and NZVI showed significant
cytotoxicity to A549 cells in a dose-dependent manner from 1 to 67 g/mL, while nanoTiO2
and nanoCeO2 only exerted cytotoxicity at 67 g/mL. Only nanoAg induced a genotoxic
response, at 9, 33 and 53 g/mL. However, no significant cytotoxic or genotoxic effects of
the SBR effluents or biosolids containing nanomaterials were observed.