AWWA ACE65115

One phenomenon that is increasing in the Gulf of Mexico region is red tides. A red tide is the result of the massive multiplication and ecological dominance of microorganisms that produces harmful toxins, such as the Pseudo-nitzschia genus. Hospitalization from poisoning and massive strandings and mortality of fish, sea birds and sea mammals (Sierra et al., 1999) tends to increase year by year (Cortes et al., 1996; Garate, 1996; Gomez and Licea, 1998; Herrera, 1999) all of them related to blooming of toxic microalgae known as red tide. A formal evaluation of harmful algal blooms (HAB) impact in Mexico is unavailable, although the increase in the number, periodicity and impact of HABs off its shores are widely recognized. Several cities in Mexico are frequently stricken by HABs (Figueroa and Zepeda, 2000; Herrera, 1999; Morales et al., 2000). The concern caused by the more frequent occurring of HABs and the poisoning nature of the toxins produced during this phenomena had produced the development of new approaches to algal toxin degradation (Lawton and Robertson, 1999; Gajdek et al., 2001; Lawton et al., 2003). Among them, advanced oxidation processes have been reported as a very effective methodology to remove some algal toxins from water (Lawton et al., 2003; Bandala et al., 2004). Nevertheless, no reports are available dealing with chemical degradation of red tide algal toxins, such as domoic acid (DA). The objective of this work was to explore the application of Fenton and Fenton-like advanced oxidation processes to the removal of DA in synthetic samples in order to estimate the feasibility of using this technology for marine water detoxification. Includes 19 references, figures.