Abstract—Toxicity reduction is a main criterion in prioritizing industrial wastewater treatment objectives. This paper utilized a comprehensive survey of 41 industrial facilities to characterize their wastewater quality parameters and to assess their wastewater toxicity. The 41 factories were grouped under eleven industrial categories. Microtox relative toxicity test results indicated that industrial wastewater in Kuwait are mostly very toxic to toxic with the exception of farms wastewater which was found to be slightly toxic. The highest ranking toxic wastewaters where found to be metal forming, printing, dairy, slaughterhouses, petrochemical, poultry, food, paper and packaging, beverage, and construction materials industries in order. Among the contributing factors to the toxicity of industrial wastewater are temperature, pH, metals, COD, TOC, NH3, TPH, phenol, and BTEX.

Index Terms—Industrial wastewater, Microtox, pollution, toxicity.

Mohd Elmuntasir Ahmed, Adel Al-Haddad, and Suad Al-Dufaileej are with Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, Kuwait City, Kuwait (e-mail: miahmed@kisr.edu.kw, ahadad@kisr.edu.kw, sleej@kisr.edu.kw).

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Cite: Mohd Elmuntasir Ahmed, Adel Al-Haddad, and Suad Al-Dufaileej, "Characterization and Profiling of Industrial Wastewater Toxicity in Kuwait," International Journal of Environmental Science and Development vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 35-41, 2022.

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