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Collateral damage from the COVID-19 pandemic: Synergistic toxic effects of rapid antigen tests on the rotifer species Brachionus calyciflorus
Summary
Millions of at-home COVID tests have been tossed out over the past few years, and this study found their chemical contents can be extremely toxic to tiny water creatures called rotifers—key organisms at the base of the aquatic food chain. A tiny amount of test strip fluid killed 100% of these organisms within 12 hours and stopped them from reproducing, likely due to a combination of chemicals and nanoparticles working together rather than any single ingredient. This doesn't directly affect human health, but it's a reminder that convenient medical products can have unexpected environmental costs that ripple through ecosystems humans depend on.
As the COVID-19 pandemic fades, its environmental impact is becoming clear. Beyond plastic pollution from masks and packaging, rapid COVID-19 test strips could add further impact through nanomaterial-based immunosensors containing gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), which, together with other nanomaterials, could cause lethal effects in the aquatic environment. We exposed the limnic rotifer Brachionus calyciflorus to the contents of a representative test strip to assess its potential impact. A dilution containing only 6.0 µl of the stock solution caused 100% lethality within 12 h and complete loss of reproduction, disrupting the species' key role in the zooplankton food web. However, AuNPs were internalized only in small amounts, and the diluted AuNP fraction was largely non-toxic, implicating that the toxicity derives from potential synergistic effects within the whole dilution. Given the growing use of rapid antigen tests commercially and nanomaterials in medicine, more attention is needed regarding their environmental risks and potential synergistic effects.