Abstract

The toxicity of effluents from a petrochemical industry center in southern Finland was tested by conducting bioassays on organisms from three different trophic levels. In fish tests, rainbow trout ( Salmo gairdneri) were caged at the discharge site and simultaneously at a reference area. The only clear differences, among the measurements of 25 metabolic parameters, were observed in fish liver where activities of two detoxication enzymes were significantly increased in the exposed group. The water flea ( Daphnia magna) was used both in acute (EC 50) and long-term reproduction tests. No acute lethal toxicity was detected in any of the wastewater samples investigated. A combined effluent, however, caused a reduction in the reproduction rate with an EC 50 of 3%. No mutagenic activity was observed with the Ames test ( Salmonella typhimurium, strains TA 97, TA 98, and TA 100) in concentrated effluents, in sediment samples, or in liver samples from predator fish caught from the discharge site.

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