Toxicity study of Norfloxacin degradation by advanced oxidative process

Advanced oxidative processes (AOPs) are promising techniques that have been developed to treat and remove these organic contaminants in surface waters and effluents. The objective of this work was to evaluate the toxicity of products generated from UV/H2O2 degradation of solutions containing 5 µg/mL of Norfloxacin (NOR) and 1.4 mmol/L of H2O2 at pH 4.0, 7.0 and 9.0 against the micro crustacean Artemia salina. For the toxicity test, Artemia salina eggs were hatched in a solution containing 2.7% sea salt, for 48 h, with temperature at 27 °C and forced aeration. The ecotoxicity test was performed on 24-well plates. For each well, 10 nauplii of A. salina containing a control of the dilution solution, a positive control of toxicity and test solutions in the proportions of 100% were transferred, 50% and 25%, after 48 h mortality was verified. The data show that there was 100% mortality of A. salina in the wells containing 100% of the solution obtained through the degradation in all tested pH ranges, whereas the solutions containing 50 and 25% of the degraded drug showed a low rate of mortality demonstrating that there is no toxicity of products formed from degradation in the last two conditions described.