PARENT SESSION
PT2 - Endocrine Disruption
Tuesday, 19 November 2002
8:00 AM to 6:30 PM
Exhibit Hall
(P536) Use of Static Renewal and Flow-through Tests to Assess the Estrogenicity of Effluent from a Thermomechanical Pulp and Paper Mill in Ontario.
Sherry, Jim*,1, Tinson, Cheryl1, Parrot, Joanne1, Trowbridge, Dave2, Verma, Subash2, Cuddy, Sharon3, Cooper, Kelly, 1 National Water Research Institute, Burlington, Ontario, Canada2 Sault College, Sault St. Marie, Ontario, Canada3 ULERN, Sault St. Marie, Ontario
ABSTRACT- Results from in vitro tests have shown that effluents from thermomechanical pulp mills (TMP) contain estrogenic chemicals, and thus have the potential to cause estrogenic responses in fish. Our objective was to test the ability of effluent from a Northern Ontario TMP mill to induce vitellogenin (Vg) in juvenile rainbow trout. We used a static renewal procedure to test the potency effluent in the laboratory. The effluent in the exposure chambers was fully renewed daily for 21-days. A flow-through regime was used to test the ability of an environmentally relevant dilution of the effluent (2%) to induce Vg in juvenile trout over a two month exposure. For both experiments, a replicated tank design was used to allow for statistical testing of tank effects. The data will show whether final effluent from this TMP mill can induce Vg in rainbow trout. In addition we shall compare the in vivo results compare to those from an in vitro test of the effluent's estrogenic potential in primary cultures of rainbow trout hepatocytes.
Key words: vitellogenin, pulp and paper, effluent, endocrine