Economic cost of cyanobacterial blooms.

Cyanobacterial blooms impact upon the water quality, environmental and ecological status of water bodies and affect most of the uses we make of water. The extent of the impact depends upon the type, size and frequency of the blooms, the size of the water body affected, the uses made of the water and the treatment options available to respond to the blooms. The impacts therefore vary considerably from place to place.

Extraction of cyanobacterial endotoxin.

To simplify our efforts in acquiring toxicological information on endotoxins produced by cyanobacteria, a method development study was undertaken to identify relatively hazard-free and efficient procedures for their extraction. One article sourced and two novel methods were evaluated for their ability to extract lipopolysaccharides (LPSs) or endotoxins from cyanobacteria. The Limulus polyphemus amoebocyte lysate (LAL) assay was employed to compare the performance of a novel method utilizing a 1-butanol-water (HBW) solvent system to that of Westphal's (1965) phenol-water system (HPW) for the extraction of endotoxin from various cyanobacteria.