Aquatic toxicities of halogenated benzoic acids to Tetrahymena pyriformis.

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Halogenated benzoic acids are widespread environmental pollutants resulting primarily from the production and use of xenobiotics. Two significant environmental sources of chlorinated benzoic acids are the microbial metabolism of herbicides (Maybury et al. 1996) and polychlorinated biphenyls (Abramowicz 1990; Harkness et al. 1993). Bryant and Schultz (1994) and Schultz and Dawson (1995) demonstrated that partial biodegradation or biotransformation produces byproducts that are more toxic than the parent substance. Aquatic studies while limited, have demonstrated benzoic acids to be toxic to a range of biota including bacteria (Ramos-Nino et al. 1996) as well as invertebrates and fish (Zhao et al. 1996).