Screening of physicochemical treatment processes for reducing toxicity of hair care products wastewaters.

Toxicity reduction in wastewaters from small hair care products manufacturing companies using coagulation/flocculation/sedimentation or flotation, membrane separation and powdered activated charcoal adsorption was evaluated. Raw wastewater composition varied widely within and especially between companies, but all exhibited high acute toxicity to Daphnia similis (EC(I)50; 48 h < 0.02-0.

Toxicity identification evaluation of cosmetics industry wastewater.

The cosmetics industry has shown steady growth in many developing countries over the past several years, yet little research exists on toxicity of wastewaters it generates. This study describes a toxicity identification evaluation conducted on wastewater from a small Brazilian hair care products manufacturing plant. Physicochemical and ecotoxicological analyses of three wastewater treatment plant inlet and outlet samples collected over a six month period revealed inefficient operation of the treatment system and thus treated wastewater organic matter, suspended solids and surfactants contents consistently exceeded discharge limits.