The stable aryl hydrocarbon receptor agonist potency of United Kingdom Continental Shelf (UKCS) offshore produced water effluents

• Published in: Marine pollution bulletin 2005-12, Vol.50 (12), p.1694-1698
• Main Authors: Hurst, Mark R., Chan-Man, Yin L., Balaam, Jan, Thain, John E., Thomas, Kevin V.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: AhR agonists; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Applied ecology; Biological and medical sciences; Calibration; CALUX monitoring; Dioxins - analysis; Ecotoxicology, biological effects of pollution; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Luciferases; Marine and brackish environment; Offshore platforms; Polychlorinated Dibenzodioxins - chemistry; Produced water; Receptors, Aryl Hydrocarbon - agonists; Toxicity Tests - methods; United Kingdom; Waste Disposal, Fluid; Water - chemistry; Water Pollutants, Chemical - analysis
• ISSN: 0025-326X; 1879-3363
• DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2005.07.009

The in vitro aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) agonist potency of offshore produced water effluents, collected from the United Kingdom Continental Shelf, was determined using the dioxin responsive (DR)-chemically activated luciferase expression (CALUX) assay. Octadecylsilane (C18) solid phase extraction (SPE) extracts of produced water were exposed to DR-CALUX cells for 24 h in order to investigate the contribution in potency from compounds that are stable to metabolism by the CALUX cells during exposure. The stable AhR agonist potency determined over 24 h was highly variable and ranged from 1 to 430 ng TCDD TEQ CALUX l −1. These data reflect the highly variable composition of produced water discharges from different production fields. It is recommended that further work be performed to characterise the full range of stable dioxin like AhR agonists present in offshore produced water discharges using techniques such as bioassay-directed analysis.