Acute Toxicities of Penta-BDE in TiO2 Nanoparticle Suspensions to Daphnia magna

The ecotoxicity of penta-BDE in nanosized TiO2 (nTiO2) water suspensions was examined using a method developed based on the standard OECD Guidelines for the Testing of Chemicals ( i . e . OECD 202). The water flea (Daphnia magna) were used as the testing organisms. The results showed that penta-BDE alone has no acute toxicities to the testing organisms, but exhibited acute toxicities in nTiO2 water suspensions. The 72 h NOEC of penta-BDE with 1 mg L-1 nTiO2 to D. magna was calculated as less than 0.1 μg L-1 , and the 72 h EC50 and LC50 are 50.2 μg L-1 (95% CI: 0.872.45) and 100.2 μg L-1(95% CI: 1.222.86), respectively. The toxicity results indicate that nanoparticles might pose potential environmental impact through increasing toxicities of organic pollutants. Further research on the joint ecotoxicity of nanoparticles and organic pollutants is warranted in order to minimize the adverse ecological effects and human health risk of nanotechnology development.