Objective Hazard evaluation and characterization of water contaminated with pesticides and their metabolites is limited by insufficient techniques and by lack of property data. But most of the toxicity may be assosiated to polar fractions. Experience with these techniques is limited and the equipment costs still prevent routine widespread use.
Bioassay represent a cost effective alternative.
Bioassays are established techniques for the characterization of wastewater. They can, however, be used also for characterization of surface water and groundwater, on condition that adequate physio-chemical preconcentrations are carried out. Progress on these combinations can be gained by an interlaboratory exchange of samples and results. Bioassay characterization data can then be compared with chemical-analytical results for evaluation of the different techniques being used, and the full data set which combines data from different characterization windows will provide an unprecedented base for hazard evalutations fo the investigated water samples. Anders Baun, M.Sc.