Chapter 16: Toxicity, Safety, and Disposal of Developed Biosensors

A biosensor is a device with integrated receptors and transducers that can transform a biological response into an electrical signal. Over the past decade, researchers have focused on designing and developing biosensors for various purposes, including health care, disease detection, environmental monitoring, water and food quality monitoring, and drug delivery. Biosensors are a significant tool for food analysis. Food safety poses a growing concern for human health worldwide. Improving analytical procedures and methodologies is crucial for ensuring food safety. Electrochemical sensors offer a unique possibility to achieve sensitive, precise, rapid, and portable food safety detection. The assessment of toxicity in water streams, wastewater, and polluted sediments is a critical component of environmental pollution monitoring. Evaluating biological effects using a quick, sensitive, and cost-effective method provides specific information for ecotoxicity assessment. With the unprecedented deterioration of environmental quality, the rapid recognition of toxic compounds is paramount for in situ real-time monitoring. Recently, microbial fuel cell (MFC)-based biosensors have drawn increasing interest due to their sustainability and cost-effectiveness, with applications ranging from monitoring anaerobic digestion process parameters to detecting water quality [e.g., chemical oxygen demand (COD) and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD)]. The release of chemicals into water systems has led to pollution in many parts of the world, posing threats to human health and aquatic ecosystems. This chapter presents the progress made in developing electrochemical biosensors for environmental toxicants (pesticides and heavy metals) over the past seven years.