INVESTIGATING ACUTE PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF CHEMICALS IN FINE DUST TO DAPHNIA MAGNA

Fine dust pollution in the atmosphere has been an increasing problem for human health around the globe. Specifically, neighbouring countries of China, such as Korea, have experienced more serious consequences of fine dust pollution due to Chinese development. The chemical compounds existing in fine dust pose harmful effects on the health of all generations, presenting increased statistics of various pulmonary diseases. Chemical compounds found in fine dust can be categorized into three different classes: agricultural, heavy metal, and emission pollutants. Although how these chemical compounds impact human health have been studied before, no studies have been conducted on how these compounds can impact different organisms and ecological stability. In this study, two chemical compounds from each category were utilized: bifenthrin and gamma-cyhalothrin from agricultural pollutants, copper nitrate and iron nitrate from heavy metals and sulfuric acid and nitric acid from emission pollutants. The compounds were used to observe acute physiological effects of Daphnia magna, specifically the heartbeat rate and phototactic swimming rate. Each daphnia’s heartbeat rate and phototactic swimming rate were evaluated after 30 minutes of incubation. Although the results varied, there were significant statistical differences in both the heart rate and phototactic swimming rate when compared with that of original parameters. The data demonstrated us to conclude that all the three categories of chemical compounds induced moderate changes to their heartbeat and swimming capability with the order from the largest agricultural>heavy metal>acidic pollutants in terms of regression slopes of swimming duration and relative magnitude of heartbeat change. Therefore, the results concluded that the chemical compounds existing in fine dust can cause acute physiological effects on daphnia magna.