Chemical Exposure and Effects in Freshwater Aquatic Species

The purpose of this research was to develop and calibrate an integrated exposure model to assess the cause-effect relationships of carcinogenic chemical exposure and genotoxic effects in a freshwater aquatic vertebrate species. Although risk models require good estimates of chemical exposure (dose) and quantitative measures of effects (response), few models, if any, have been appropriately calibrated for linking dose and response in situ. This lack of knowledge limits the development of strong cause-effect relationships for aquatic species, and is the rationale basis for this study.

The research results demonstrated that a comprehensive set of bioassay results can be used to monitor genotoxicity in brown bullhead and can be integrated over varying exposure types, durations, and along multiple steps associated with the tumorogensis pathway. These tools can be used in future studies designed to test specific risk assessment capabilities of this approach. Published by WERF. 90 pages.

Originally funded as WERF project 01-ECO-11UR.