2.1 Hair care product manufacturers
After an initial screening of hair care products manufacturers, two representative small-scale hair care products manufacturing plants were selected for this study, hereafter denominated Plant A and Plant B (Table 1), respecting the confidentiality agreement as a condition of their participation. Plant A employs 48 people and has an average monthly water consumption for industrial processes of 50,000 liters. Sanitary sewage and industrial effluents are treated separately. The industrial effluents come from production activities such as reactor washing, packaging and laboratory wastes, together with raw materials and products past their shelf-life, as well from the purge of the compressors and the solutions used in regeneration of ion exchange columns used to prepare the deionized water that is incorporated into products.
At plant A wastewater is treated in a 1300 L stainless steel tank by conventional physicochemical batch process of coagulation, flocculation and sedimentation, followed by passage through an activated carbon filter. Physicochemical sludge is sent to a drying bed and then collected by a third party for incineration. The treated wastewater is discharged to the municipal sanitary system and released without further treatment to the receiving water body.
Factory B has five employees and an average monthly industrial water consumption of 20,000 liters. There is no wastewater treatment system installed in the plant and wastewater is discharged in the municipal sewage system and released without any treatment to receiving waters.
Table 1. Hair care products manufactures at plants A e B
Product
|
Plant A
|
Plant B
|
Shampoo
|
X
|
X
|
Conditioner
|
X
|
X
|
Capillary Mask
|
X
|
X
|
Finisher
|
X
|
X
|
Split end repair
|
X
|
X
|
Keratin
|
X
|
X
|
Extract
|
X
|
|
Hair ointment
|
X
|
|
Silicone cream
|
X
|
|
Oil
|
X
|
|
Combing Cream
|
|
X
|
Curl Activator Fluid
|
|
X
|
2.2 Wastewaters sampling and physicochemical characterization
Both plants operate batch production processes and therefore grab samples of raw wastewater were collected at each once a month, for three months. Wastewater samples were stored in polyethylene bottles after coarse sieving (0.1 cm sieve) and mixing. Physicochemical characterization was performed according to standard methods (APHA 2017) and included the following parameters: pH (method 4500-H+ B, Hach HQ40d pHmeter), electrical conductivity (method 2510 B, Tecnopon mCA-150 conductivity meter), turbidity (method 2130 B, TD-300 turbidity meter), total COD (tCOD) and soluble (sCOD) (method 5220 D, Hach DR3800 spectrophotometer), dissolved organic carbon (DOC, method 5310 B, Shimadzu TOC-V CSH) and O&G (method 5520 B). Samples were filtered through 0.45 μm sterile membranes for sCOD and DOC quantification.
All analyzes were performed at the Laboratory of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering (LESA) of the Universidade Federal de Viçosa (UFV), except O&G analyses, which were carried out by a private laboratory.
2.3 Organism maintenance
Toxicity tests were carried out in the ecotoxicology laboratory, Aquatox / LESA / UFV, in which the test organisms Daphnia similis, Ceriodaphnia dubia, Hyalella azteca and Raphidocelis subcapitata were maintained, according to Brazilian technical standards (ABNT NBR 12713: 2016, NBR 13373: 2016, NBR 12648: 2018 and NBR 15470: 2013), which are similar to international standards. The organisms were maintained in water collected at the UFV´s water treatment plant prior to the disinfection process. Quality of each batch of water was monitored by measuring pH, electrical conductivity and total hardness (method 2340 D, APHA 2017). Water was aerated for at least 12 hours before use.
Test organisms were held in beakers under controlled temperature and photoperiod, as specified for each species. The cladocerans D. similis and C. dubia were transferred to fresh water and fed three times a week with Tetramin® fish meal, yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and a suspension of R. subcapitata. The amphipod H. azteca water was changed once a week. They were fed daily with a mixture of fish meal, yeast and primrose oil, while solid food consisting of rabbit food (Rói, Guabi, São Paulo) and Tetramin® fish food was supplied three times a week. Nylon screens and Elodea were used as substrate for H. azteca growth. The green microalga R. subcapitata was cultivated in LC Oligo medium under aseptic conditions.
The fish Danio rerio was not maintained in the Aquatox laboratory but was obtained from a commercial breeder and transported to the Laboratory of Fish Biology, Department of Veterinary Medicine, UFV, where the necessary structure for testing was made available. Test protocols were duly approved by the UFV animal ethics committee (CEUA), Process 09/2016. After receiving the fish, they were kept for seven days in a 250-liter aerated aquarium, respecting the maximum body mass per volume ratio of water, 1 g.L-1. During the seven days adaptation period, fish were fed with Presence Nutripiscis (Campinas, SP), with a minimum content of 450 g.kg-1 crude protein. No obvious signs of stress, such as abnormal behavior, bleeding, excessive mucus or lethality greater than 5% of fish during the adaptation period were observed and they were considered fit for toxicity testing.
Sensitivity of the different test organisms to the reference substance sodium chloride (NaCl) was determined periodically, following the methodologies defined in the respective standards, detailed in the following item. Organism sensitivity can be found in supplementary information.
2.4 Toxicity tests
A comparative sensitivity analysis was performed using representative test organisms of three trophic levels, primary producers (R. subcapitata), primary consumers (C. dubia, D. similis, H. azteca) and secondary consumers (D. rerio) in the raw wastewater from the second sample collected at both manufacturing plants.
Before starting all toxicity tests, sample pH was monitored and adjusted to pH 6-8 if necessary. Initial characterization of raw wastewater samples was carried using the static D. similis acute immobilization assay (NBR 12713, ABNT 2016). Neonates aged six to 24 hours were exposed to serial dilutions of the samples, for 48 hours, at 22 ± 2 °C under a 12 h light/dark cycle. Four replicates of each dilution and the control (culture water) were included, each containing 10 mL of test solution and five organisms. The number of immobilized organisms were counted at the end of the assay.
For the semi static C. dubia survival and reproduction assay (NBR 13373, ABNT 2016), neonates (6 - 24 hours old) were exposed to serial dilutions of wastewater for eight days at 22 ± 2 °C under a 12 h light/dark cycle. Ten replicates containing one organism and 10 mL test solution were included for each wastewater dilution and the negative control (dilution water). At 48 hours intervals, surviving adults and neonates were counted and the adults were transferred to new test solutions and fed. The number of surviving adults and the cumulative number of neonates in each test solution was tallied after eight days to determine chronic effects. Mortality of adults within the first 48 hours of exposure was quantified as an acute effect.
For the static H. azteca survival and growth assay (NBR 15470, ABNT 2013), seven to 14-day-old organisms were exposed to serial dilutions of the samples for 96 hours at 22 ± 2 °C under a 12 h light/dark cycle. Ten replicates containing 20 mL of test solution and one organism were included for each dilution and the control. In each replicate, 0.05 mL of compound food was added at the start of the assay and again after 48 hours. Dead organisms were counted at the end of the assay.
For the R. subcapitata growth inhibition assay (NBR 12648, ABNT 2018), test solutions (100 mL sample diluted in LC Oligo medium and inoculum of 105 cells.mL-1) were prepared in triplicate under aseptic conditions in 250 mL erlenmeyers capped with a cotton stopper. The erlenmeyers were randomly arranged in shakers (Brand New Ethics, Model 109) and held at 22 ± 2 °C, under constant illumination (4,500 lux) and stirring (100-175 rpm) for 72 hours. At the beginning and at the end of the test the number of algal cells in each test solution was counted.
Acute toxicity to D. rerio (NBR 15088, ABNT 2016) was carried using fish with total length of 2.0 ± 1.0 cm in homogeneous lots exposed to serial dilutions of samples for 48 hours at 22 ± 2 °C under a 12 h light/dark cycle. Ten fish were exposed to each dilution and the control (dilution water). At the end of the exposure period dead fish were counted and the survivors were euthanized by immersion in a benzocaine solution.
Acute toxicity assay results (D. similis C. dubia, D. rerio, H. azteca) were reported as the half maximal effective or lethal initial concentration (EC50 or LC50, %). Chronic toxicity results were reported as the half maximal inhibitory (IC50, %), of cell growth (R. subcapitata) or organism reproduction (C. dubia). Toxicity indices were quantified by the Trimmed Spearman Karber, Probit, Dunnett or linear interpolation methods, using software made available free of charge by the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA, 2006).
Correlations between physical, chemical and ecotoxicological data were determined after confirming the normality of the data by the Shapiro Wilk test, using the Action Stat system (Estatcamp, Campinas, SP).
2.5 Comparative sensitivity of test organisms
Comparison of sensitivity among different organisms was evaluated using the method proposed by Zagatto and Bertoletti (2006), which takes into account the confidence intervals obtained for the EC50 or LC50 indices of the organisms to be compared. Initially, the G statistic was calculated using Eq. 1:

where: UL1 = upper confidence interval for test organism 1
UL2 = upper confidence interval for test organism 2
EC50,1 = Effective concentration for test organism 1
EC50,2 = Effective concentration for test organism 2
The H and Z values were then calculated using equations 2 and 3:

and test organisms exhibited significantly different sensitivities to the wastewater when Z > H.