RESUMEN
Solid wastes constitute an important and emerging problem. Landfills are still one of the most common ways to manage waste disposal. The risk assessment of pollutants from landfills is becoming a major environmental issue in Europe, due to the large number of sites and to the importance of groundwater protection. Furthermore, there is lack of knowledge for the environmental, ecotoxicological and toxicological characteristics of most contaminants contained into landfill leacheates. Understanding leachate composition and creating an integrated strategy for risk assessment are currently needed to correctly face the landfill issues and to make projections on the long-term impacts of a landfill, with particular attention to the estimation of possible adverse effects on human health and ecosystem. In the present study, we propose an integrated strategy to evaluate the toxicity of the leachate using chemical analyses, risk assessment guidelines and in vitro assays using the hepatoma HepG2 cells as a model. The approach was applied on a real case study: an industrial waste landfill in northern Italy for which data on the presence of leachate contaminants are available from the last 11 years. Results from our ecological risk models suggest important toxic effects on freshwater fish and small rodents, mainly due to ammonia and inorganic constituents. Our results from in vitro data show an inhibition of cell proliferation by leachate at low doses and cytotoxic effect at high doses after 48 h of exposure.
Asunto(s)
Eliminación de Residuos , Contaminantes Químicos del Agua/toxicidad , Proliferación Celular/efectos de los fármacos , Citotoxinas/análisis , Citotoxinas/toxicidad , Monitoreo del Ambiente , Agua Dulce/química , Células Hep G2 , Humanos , Residuos Industriales/análisis , Residuos Industriales/estadística & datos numéricos , Bifenilos Policlorados/análisis , Bifenilos Policlorados/toxicidad , Dibenzodioxinas Policloradas/análogos & derivados , Dibenzodioxinas Policloradas/análisis , Dibenzodioxinas Policloradas/toxicidad , Hidrocarburos Policíclicos Aromáticos/análisis , Hidrocarburos Policíclicos Aromáticos/toxicidad , Medición de Riesgo , Contaminantes Químicos del Agua/análisisRESUMEN
Assessing ecological risk in quantitative terms is a site-specific complex procedure requiring evaluation of all possible pathways taken by the chemicals from the contamination source to the targets to be protected. Unfortunately, too many cases lack of physico-chemical and ecotoxicological data makes impossible to quantify the ecological risk. We present the Ecotoxicological Classification Risk Index for Soil (ECRIS), a new classification system specific for soil risk assessment, which gives a comparative indication of the risk linked to environmental contamination by any chemical. The tool we propose is based on the integration of a data set characterizing the ecotoxicological and exposure profile of chemicals. ECRIS is a simple approach specifically set up for the landfill scenario. This index draws on the huge amount of data from our many years of leachate analysis. ECRIS is useful for a first screening of probably contaminated soil. A case study based on some Italian landfills is proposed.