TOXICITY TESTING & RELATED SERVICES
For a full list and description of these services, please follow the link to our sister company, Biotox Laboratory Services. A brief summary is included below:
TOXICITY TESTING
is the study of the effect of toxic substances on aquatic ecosystems. Our laboratory is managed according to the highest international and SANAS standards. Biotox Laboratory Services performs water and sediment toxicity studies and apply the DWS's (Department of Water and Sanitation) DEEEP
(Direct Estimation of Ecological Effect Potential) hazard classification protocol in order to determine the acute and chronic hazard of potentially affected water types. Another output of our results is the estimation of safe dilution factors as a management tool in compliance with the National Water Act to mitigate potential adverse impacts on the biotic integrity of receiving ecosystems.
DIATOM ASSESSMENTS
are rapid and cheap assessment methods that could obviate the need for additional and more expensive toxicity testing protocols due to significant improvements in technologies for algal assessments that increase the information/cost ratio. Further stated is that due to the limitations of invertebrate and fish indicators, the need for and importance of diatom monitoring has increased as the examination of diatoms in sediments and on stones, together with the invertebrates, provides a method that combines two independent indicator systems at different trophic levels. A diatom assessment is a very valuable inclusion for biomonitoring programmes, specifically as indicators of water quality conditions to support or substitute other biomonitoring protocols that may be of limited suitability.
BIOACCUMULATION
is the accumulation of toxins in animal and plant tissues. Accumulation of toxins by fish can have deleterious effects on both the organisms themselves, as well as other biota, and humans consuming the fish. This is especially of great concern if human health is at risk, due to the exposure to contaminated fish. The contaminants bioaccumulated by fish could pose carcinogenic, genotoxic and non-carcinogenic health risks to consumers, if present in excessive quantities. The most applicable bioaccumulator (fish, aquatic plants, crabs) is dependant on the objectives of the study, as well as the availability of the specific
biotic component. The variables tested for also varies from study to study based on the
specific objective of the study and the requirements of the client.
