Chapter I The Problem and its Setting

This chapter presented the problem the researchers have studied.

It is

composed of the background of the study, statement of the problem, hypothesis tested, significance of the study, review of related literature, operational definition of terms, and scope and limitation.

1.1 Background of the Study Glan is a 1st class municipality in the province of Sarangani, Philippines.

According to 2007 census, it has a population of 102,676 people in 16,990 households. Glan is located on the west by Sarangani Bay, on the north by Davao del Sur, and on the south by the Celebes Sea. It is largely based on agriculture with a high level production of copra. Aquaculture is the second biggest income earner,

notably milkfish and shrimps culture. Other agricultural products are coconut, corn, sugarcane, banana, pork, beef, and fish. The economy has accelerated in the past decade driven by advances in global communication technology and the finishing of a modern highway that tremendously improved trade and transport. It has also benefited from its political role as the seat of the provincial government. According to the last general elections, it has a total voting population of 44,197 voters. It has 13 barangay and 7 of these barangays are coastal barangay; namely, ____________________. People from these barangay are recipient of the place beautiful recreational water or beaches. People also from neighbouring place visit Glan recreational water for its inviting and relaxing beauty. The world is becoming more complicated where human being in search for quality of life resorted to invent, adopt and use any kind of material irrespective of its hazard nature that may endanger life. People are often unaware that these materials

whether toxic or non - toxic. It is true that different life forms may react differently on the variable level of toxic materials that may contain in several commodities, basic or nonbasic. While others are very sensitive to toxic substances, other may also be resistant to unknown level of toxic materials dissolved or that may accompany in body of water. Some animals may be very sensitive to a toxin, while others become resistant to the toxins effect. Different species of life-form may vary in tolerance level, then, it is important to understand that what is toxic to brine shrimp may be taken considerably as toxic to other kinds of animals to the same extent in a given point in time. Many

common household items that on a regular basis are toxic materials, but human being ignore its chronic toxic effect. Though, it can be instructive to examine several of such materials to determine their toxicity. The commonly used term to describe acute ingestion toxicity is LD50. LD means Lethal Dose and the subscript 50 means that the dose is acutely lethal to 50% of the animals to whom the chemical was administered under controlled laboratory conditions. The test animals (usually mice or rats) are given specific amounts of the chemical in either one oral dose or by a single injection and are then observed for 14 days. Since LD50 values are measured from zero up, the lower

the LD50 the more acutely toxic the chemical. Therefore, a chemical with an oral LD 50 of 500 would be much less toxic than a chemical with an LD50 of 5. LD50 values are expressed as milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg) which means mg of chemical per kg of body weight of the animal. Mg/kg is the same as ppm. For example, if the oral LD 50 of the insecticide parathion is 4, a dose of 4 parts of parathion for every million parts of body weight would be lethal to at least half of the test animals.

1.2 The problem This study seeks to investigate the toxicity level of the of the recreational water in the Municipality of Glan, Sarangani Province.

The study to answer the following questions.

1. Is the recreational water of Glan, Sarangani Province toxic or polluted? 2. What is the toxicity level of the recreational water in Glan, Sarangani Province? 3. Which recreational water area is more polluted/toxic? 4. Is the pollution/toxic level still safe for human activity?

1.3

Hypothesis This study is carried out to experiment the following hypothesis: H0. H1 Recreational Water of Glan, Sarangani Province is not polluted Recreational Water of Glan, Sarangani Province is polluted or toxic

1.4

Significance of the Study This study is important because it may educate the people swimming or diving in

these of the possible health hazard, if any, on the human being. It likewise help the local government to adopt intervention for preservation if indeed water is already polluted. It may also help the locale to mitigate measures to help preserve the cleanliness of Glan recreational water.

1.7 Scope and Limitations This study is mainly focused on knowing the toxicity which is equated to the pollution level of the respective recreational water of Glan Sarangani Province. Isolation, identification and quantification of the specific toxic materials or chemicals is not bound of this research. The brine shrimp toxic assay was conducted in General Santos Hope Christian School in vitro (laboratory) on June 29, 2013.

Chapter II

Review of Related Literature

This chapter presents the review of related literature and the operational definition of terms used in this research. Literatures were cited on the bases of their importance in the conduct of the research.

Brine shrimp-Brine shrimp eggs are almost exclusively produced in USA, e.g. by Ocean Star International, Inc. company, and imported in tins. The eggs of brine shrimps are picked up in Great Salt Lake in Utah. Eggs are washed by fresh water, dried and vacuum stored in tins. Commonly they are used as feed for aquarium fish. Though brine shrimp is an organism living in saline water, it is found only in lakes but not in seas. The advantage of the test is quite homogeneity in eggs and in freshly born individuals, respectively. Through the freshly natal individuals are immediately applied in testing, difficult cultivation is not demanded.

2.1 Operational Definition of Terms The following terms are defined depending on how they were used in this study. The definition of terms is for the readers benefit. Brine Shrim;

Bioassay

Toxicity

Pollution

Seral Dilution

Lethal Dose

-Toxic- containing or being poisonous material especially when capable of causing death -Insecticide- an agent that destroys or kills insects -Parathion- an extremely toxic insecticide -LD (Lethal dose) - deadly amount -Serial Dilution-

2.2 Literature Cited There are several published whole-animal bioassays for assessment of chemical toxicity (1). Bacteria are commonly used for quantitative tests, and there are some procedures for qualitative tests on Blepharisma (a one-celled pond organism) and Daphnia (water fleas). Brine shrimp have been used as a benchtop bioassay for the discovery and purification of bioactive natural products (2), and they are an excellent choice for elementary toxicity investigations of consumer products. Brine shrimp, Artemia species, also known as sea monkeys, are marine invertebrates about 1 mm in size. Freeze-dried cysts are readily available at aquarium stores. The cysts last for several years and can be hatched without special equipment (directions are given in the

supplementary materials). Toxicity testing is carried out by adding different doses of material to small numbers of the shrimp; the entire dose respose curve for a substance can be generated in a 3-hour lab period. The supplementary material gives a general procedure for this bioassay. The assay does involve killing brine shrimp. There is a reasonable controversy over use of animals for such purposes, and some people have ethical or religious objections to killing even lower organisms (Lieberman, 199).

Artemia (Brine Shrimp)

Artemia is an important live food for aquarium fish, and the larval stages of commercial marine fish and commercial crustaceans. Artemia are brachiopod

crustaceans found in salt lakes around the world. Great Salt Lake in North America is one of the main sources. Artemia can live in water up to about 300 ppt though the best salinity for culture is seawater or 30-35 ppt. While they survive at temperatures of 635oC they are usually cultured at 25-30oC. Artemia reproduce sexually with quite distinct male and females forms. The adult males are identified by their claspers which are used to clasp the female during mating. Male and female pairs can be seen in cultures. After mating and during favourable environmental conditions live nauplii are produced as offspring while under high salinity conditions cysts are produced. Cysts are hard shelled eggs surrounding an embryo. When the environmental conditions again become favourable the cysts will hatch. Cysts are harvested in the wild and stored in cans or packages under vacuum or nitrogen. In aquaculture these cans are an easy storage method until the cysts are hatched and the nauplii are used for food. There are about 200,000 300,000 cysts per gram of cysts. Cans are commonly around 450 grams in weight and cost approximately $50-100 per can. Good quality cysts have an 85-95% hatch rate.

In Australian aquaculture a number of species are reared on Artemia during their larval and juvenile stages. Species include the marine fish (e.g. barramundi, striped

trumpeter, seahorses, snapper, mulloway, kingfish), freshwater fish (e.g. Murray cod, Macquarie perch, aquarium fish) and crustaceans (e.g. prawns, mud crabs, crayfish). [http://www.dpiw.tas.gov.au/inter.nsf/WebPages/CDAT-6AD2YQ.