Gamma radiation treatment for reducing cytotoxicity and mutagenicity in industrial wastewater

Abstract

Our study evaluates the effect of gamma radiation treatment on detoxification of textile effluents. The effluents were tested for cytotoxicity and mutagenicity using Allium cepa, heamolytic, brine shrimp, and Ames tests before and after gamma radiation treatment. The collected wastewater samples were irradiated to the absorbed doses of 5kGy, 10kGy, and 15kGy, and subjected to toxicity tests. The gamma radiation showed promising efficiency for detoxification of pollutants in wastewater. The microbial load was reduced to zero, and increases in root length (RL) and root count (RC) were 31.10% and 38.34%, respectively, at 5 kGy. The reduction in cytotoxicity was recorded to be 39.56%, 49.65%, and 79.63% in the case of human and sheep red blood cells (RBC) and brine shrimp, respectively. Before treatment, the samples were mildly mutagenic and after treatment mutagenicity was not detected. Results showed that gamma radiation has promising efficiency for the degradation of toxic agents present in effluents.