Biochemical Oxygen Demand or BOD gives a measure of the amount of oxygen that the microbes utilize to degrade organic materials in a water body. Also, BOD measures the chemical oxidation of inorganic materials i.e., the removal of oxygen from water via a chemical reaction. The BOD value is generally expressed in milligrams of oxygen used per litre of the sample over a 5-day incubation period at 20 °C, and it is frequently used as an estimate of the degree of organic pollution in water. The reduction of BOD is used in evaluating the efficacy of wastewater treatment systems.
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