Mixtures of Chemical Pollutants at European Legislation Safety Concentrations: How Safe Are They?
R. CarvalhoAugustine ArukweSélim Aı̈t-Aı̈ssaAnne Bado‐NillesStefania BalzamoAnders BaunShimshon BelkinLuděk BláhaFrançois BrionDaniela ContiNicolas CreusotYona J. EssigV. FerreroVesna Flander‐PutrleMaria FürhackerRegina Grillari‐VoglauerChrister HögstrandAdam J. JonasJoubert Banjop KharlyngdohRobert LoosAnne-Katrine LundebyeCarina ModigPer‐Erik OlssonSmitha P.S. PillaiNatasa PolakMonica PotalivoWilfried SánchezAndrea SchifferliKristin SchirmerSusanna SforziniStephen R. StürzenbaumLiv SøftelandValentina TurkA. ViarengoInge WernerSharon Yagur‐KrollRadka ZounkováTeresa Lettieri
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Abstract:
The risk posed by complex chemical mixtures in the environment to wildlife and humans is increasingly debated, but has been rarely tested under environmentally relevant scenarios. To address this issue, two mixtures of 14 or 19 substances of concern (pesticides, pharmaceuticals, heavy metals, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, a surfactant, and a plasticizer), each present at its safety limit concentration imposed by the European legislation, were prepared and tested for their toxic effects. The effects of the mixtures were assessed in 35 bioassays, based on 11 organisms representing different trophic levels. A consortium of 16 laboratories was involved in performing the bioassays. The mixtures elicited quantifiable toxic effects on some of the test systems employed, including i) changes in marine microbial composition, ii) microalgae toxicity, iii) immobilization in the crustacean Daphnia magna, iv) fish embryo toxicity, v) impaired frog embryo development, and vi) increased expression on oxidative stress-linked reporter genes. Estrogenic activity close to regulatory safety limit concentrations was uncovered by receptor-binding assays. The results highlight the need of precautionary actions on the assessment of chemical mixtures even in cases where individual toxicants are present at seemingly harmless concentrations.Keywords:
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Abstract Although Daphnia magna have been widely used in the determination of the toxicity of various substances, there are no reports in the literature that describe a rigorous bioassay method using this organism as a test species. The test described herein involves the standariza-tion of various important aspects of the method such as the age of the test organisms, and the dilution water used for the preparation of the various toxicant concentrations. Also described is a simple method for the statistical analysis of the results. The sensitivity of the proposed bioassay is demonstrated by determining the toxicity of various pulp and paper effluents. Finally, extensive bioassays were carried out simultaneously with rainbow trout and Daphnia magna indicating that Daphnia are as good a biological indicator of acute toxicity as fish.
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Daphnia magna is both an ubiquitous filter feeder in freshwater ecosystems and a standard organism in ecotoxicology. Physiological effects of toxicants under chronic exposure have been extensively documented for Daphnia in the literature. In ecotoxicology, the usual individual test endpoints are growth, reproduction and survival. These are not always the direct result of exposure to a contaminant although they can be a side-effect of feeding depression. Thus, food deprivation experiments were used to identify and model key physiological processes under contaminant exposure. Insight from these experiments was used to develop an individual physiological model. The model was fully validated for D. magna using several classes of toxicants (including metals and organics). The model describes Daphnia growth, moulting, and reproduction dynamically while incorporating direct, non-lethal effects of toxicants. This ECOMORPH model is currently being developed for other organisms using the same structural framework, and can be used to predict the physiological effects of contaminant exposure.
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