Contaminant exposures in various environmental media: How can toxicity comparisons be made?
- Univ. of Waterloo, Ontario (Canada). Dept. of Biology
- L.S. McCarty Scientific Research and Consulting, Oakville, Ontario (Canada)
Environmental protection is usually based upon guidelines or standards expressed as chemical values in environmental media such as air, sediment, soil, and water. The basis for such guidelines is laboratory toxicity test data, often time-dependent LC50 values (e.g., 96-h LC50s), where toxicity is expressed in terms of the concentration of chemical contaminant in the exposure medium. This preoccupation with exposure-based estimates of toxic dose has led to many difficulties when attempting to compare the relative toxicity of compounds between species and under various modifying conditions in the same medium. Furthermore, viable comparisons of toxic potencies between organisms inhabiting different environmental media has been all but impossible. This paper exploits the relationship between body residues and adverse biological effects to compare the effects of certain modifying factors (e.g., temperature) on expressed toxicity and toxic potency both within and between different species in one medium. As well, this approach is used to make comparisons of toxic potency between different species in different environmental media. Such comparisons are made by standardizing toxic responses to time-independent toxicity thresholds and using the critical body residue at the chosen biological response endpoint as the dose surrogate rather than the concentration of chemical in the exposure medium. Comparisons of exposure-based and organism residue-based toxicity between fish, and invertebrates in soil (earthworms) and sediment (amphipods) are presented. Recommendations to facilitate such comparisons are reviewed.
- OSTI ID:
- 212005
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9511137-; ISBN 1-880611-03-1; TRN: IM9617%%321
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 2. Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) world conference, Vancouver (Canada), 5-9 Nov 1995; Other Information: PBD: 1995; Related Information: Is Part Of Second SETAC world congress (16. annual meeting): Abstract book. Global environmental protection: Science, politics, and common sense; PB: 378 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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