The use of nontraditional assays in an integrated environmental assessment of contaminated ground water
1997
Twerdok, L.E. | Burton, D.T. | Gardner, H.S. | Shedd, T.R. | Wolfe, M.J.
The toxic potential of ground water contaminated with several probable carcinogenic heavy metals and halogenated solvents was evaluated using an integrated environmental assessment approach. A number of assays, which included acute toxicity, short-term chronic toxicity, genotoxicity, developmental toxicity and carcinogenicity, were used to assist in a hazard assessment. Comprehensive analytical chemistry was performed throughout the 9-month exposure to document the chemical characteristics of the ground water. An initiation-promotion protocol using a non-neoplastic concentration of diethylnitrosamine as an initiator in a 9-month chronic exposure of Japanese medaka (Oryzias latipes) was used to evaluate potential carcinogenicity of the ground water. The fish were exposed to groundwater concentrations of 1% and 10% ground water by volume. No significant lesions were found in the Japanese medaka exposed to groundwater concentrations at 1% or 10% ground water by volume. Likewise, no genotoxicity, developmental toxicity, acute toxicity or short-term chronic toxicity, were found at concentrations of less than or equal to 10% ground water by volume. The negative results obtained in this study show that the potential hazard posed by low concentrations of a complex mixture containing suspect carcinogens may not be manifested at environmentally relevant concentrations.
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