Continuous Toxicity Monitoring

Cymtox Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of Modern Water plc. It develops and markets leading-edge water and wastewater monitoring solutions.

Online Real-Time Detection of Toxic Agents in Water and Wastewater Monitoring of water toxicity using biosensors has become a widely accepted technique. Bacterial biosensors offer simple and reproducible tests that can be automated, with reagents that can be stored. The new CTM™ Continuous Toxicity Monitor makes fully automatic, continuous, on-line testing a reality.

Certain strains of bacteria emit light when healthy. When they are exposed to toxic substances, the amount of light emitted reduces. The greater the toxicity of the sample, the lower the light emitted. This has been shown over many years to be a reproducible effect. Measuring changes in light between healthy bacteria and bacteria exposed to toxic substances will therefore indicate presence in a water sample.

The CTM™ Continuous Toxicity Monitor automatically and simultaneously detects a broad range of toxicants including metals, pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, chlorinated solvents, industrial chemicals and algal toxins. The presence of harmful contaminants in waters and wastewaters is detected without having to monitor for a wide range of specific chemicals.