Effluents from wastewater treatment facilities are discharged as a complex mixture of numerous chemical substances, which may include cytotoxic, carcinogenic and mutagenic compounds. Historically, Federal and State Agencies have relied upon chemical-based analyses to set and enforce regulatory limits for these effluents. One problem with the approach is that many potentially hazardous chemicals may not be quantifiable in complex chemical effluents but are none the less discharged into the environment. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has recently established a research program to determine if a bioassay approach for evaluating the potential adverse human health effects from exposure to complex mixtures might supplement conventional chemical analysis for setting regulatory limits for wastewaters. The report summarizes a bioassay testing strategy for characterizing cytotoxic and mutagenic activity of various wastewater effluents. The use of a relative potency framework for assessing complex mixtures for potential health hazards is addressed.

"August 1988." "EPA/600/1-88/003." "PB88-243860." Microfiche.