Exposure of Oil Sand Process Affected Water in Gold Fish

Question: Discuss about theExposure of Oil Sand Process Affected Water in Gold Fish. Answer: Introduction This paper focuses on the effects of releasing oil sands process affected water in water bodies after their release from crude oil extraction sites. To be specific, the effects of this waste water on the gold fish have been emphasized in detail [1]. This topic of investigation is important because continuous release of toxic substance in water negatively affects the life of aquatic organisms. Some aquatic organisms are a source of food to humans and their death from consumption of these wastes means that the source of food to man also reduces. In the introduction part, the author brings out the problem of the toxicity of wastes generated at the mining zones on hydrocarbons to the aquatic life [2]. These wastes are said to accumulate in various tissues of the body causing poisoning. Since large amounts of water is used in these chemical processes which produce a lesser volume of the oil, this waste water finally is released into the water body. The problem is clearly put because the c rude oil companies employ some measures such as ozonation of the waste water, a process which is thought to reduce the toxicity of the waste water before being released into the water bodies. The author argues that even after this ozonation, not all the toxic substances are removed from waste water and still the aquatic organisms are put at risk. Therefore the main focus of this paper was actually to test the effects of various waste waters from crude oil processing companies on the gills, spleen and kidneys of the gold fish. The waste water samples used were fresh, aged and ozonated oil sands process affected water [3]. In the methodology section, the author first exposed the goldfish to various types of waste water from crude oil mines. Moreover, a control was used so as to make a comparison with the test samples. However, the sampling design is not elaborate so as to rule out the possibility of creating bias during goldfish sampling and performing of treatments. The use of acute and sub-chronic states of exposure of oil contaminated water was because there are different immunological effects caused at the two different states. For instance, the acute exposure effects are usually short-lived and reversible while the sub-chronic exposure (exposure at twelve weeks) causes very detrimental effects to the aquatic life. In fact, continuous exposure to oil sands process affected water may lead to onset of autoimmune diseases due to continuous production of inflammatory cytokines. The author indicates that when the gold fish were exposed to the fish aged and ozonated waste water [4]. However, the data analysis part is not clear because it is not indicated how the analysis of variance was done to determine whether there was a significant statistical difference among the different treatments. There is a common belief that when aged oil sands are kept in the pits for a long time, they tend to undergo bioremediation whereby the concentration of naphthenic acids reduces [5]. In this case, the acute and sun chronic exposure of the fresh oil sand water exposed gold fish to Trypanosoma carasii led to decreased burden of this parasite as compared to those that had not been exposed. However, the manner in which the gold fish could prevent stacks but this parasite was not actually different from those that had not been exposed. When the gold fish are able to control infection from the Trypanosoma carasii this results lead to a rise in the response by the primary macrophages and gene expression by the immune system. In fact similar findings were reported by Hang et al. 2012, when fish became more resistant to Trypanosoma carasii infection when they were exposed to nephthanic acid. When analyzing the effect of ozonated and non-ozonated oil sands process affected water, the amelioration of the acute and sub chronic effects indicated that the ozonated waste water had undergone amelioration [6]. Some of the cytokines produced in the gold fish upon exposure to the crude oil waste water produce cytokines like tumor necrosis factor alpha 2 and interferon gamma mRNA concentrations. Towards the conclusion, the author indicates that ozonation of oil sand process affected water is likely to be a form of providing adequate remediations. However, once the ozonated waste water was exposed to the gold fish, the proinflammatory cytokines were produced as well as the resistance to Trypanosoma carasii. Questions for Discussion What is the effect of oil sand process- affected water on other aquatic organisms? What actual process leads to development of resistance against Trypanosoma carasii in the oil sand process affected water? What would be the combined effect of exposing the gold fish to the ozonated and aged oil sand process affected water? What would be the chronic effects on the immune system when the gold fish are exposed to oil sand process affected water for more than two weeks? What is the effect of the inorganic materials like metals found in oil sand process affected water on the gold fish? References Hagen MO, Katzenback BA, Islam MS, El-Din MG, Belosevic M. The analysis of goldfish (Carassius auratus L.) innate immune responses after acute and subchronic exposures to oil sands process-affected water. toxicological sciences. 2013 Nov 27:kft272. He Y, Patterson S, Wang N, Hecker M, Martin JW, El-Din MG, Giesy JP, Wiseman SB. Toxicity of untreated and ozone-treated oil sands process-affected water (OSPW) to early life stages of the fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas). 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