Final report : NOAA Puerto Rico pharmaceutical wastes

The proposed work included a re-test of individual pharmaceutical wastes from Puerto Rico to see if the pattern of algal toxicity found in the studies in 1979 would repeat in a new set of samples collected in 1980. In addition, Bristol waste, highly toxic in the 1979 and again in the 1980 algal bioassays, was subjected to purging or exposure to sunlight to gauge if toxicity was perhaps volatile or photosensitive. Bristol and Upjohn (the second most toxic waste) wastes were also examined for any immediate effects on photosynthesis with organism PR-6. Six of the individual wastes were also mixed in approximately the same proportions as they occurred in a composite waste, and bioassayed with the marine blue-green alga, PR-6, to ascertain the waste or wastes contributing the most algal toxicity to composite samples.