Abstract
To date environmental mutagenesis has been a predominantly anthropocentric discipline of toxicology. It is ultimately motivated by the fear of human exposure to carcinogens and mutagens. Exposure of and effects in other organisms are regarded as relevant as far as they indicate exposure of and effects in humans. The ecotoxicologically relevant effects, i.e., changes of the structure and function (quality) of ecosystems caused by environmental pollution with mutagens, receive far less attention. Nevertheless, only these effects justify the inclusion of mutagenicity as a criterion in ecotoxicological evaluations. Both these effects and the extent to which they support an ecotoxicological role of mutagenicity tests, are the central themes of this paper.
First, a short treatment of ecotoxicology and the characteristic differences between this branch of toxicology and human toxicology is given; ecotoxicological evaluations for the aquatic environment will be briefly touched upon. Then the ecotoxicologically relevant effects of mutagens in aquatic ecosystems will be discussed. They can be split up into two groups: those that will not and those that will escape detection in an adequate set of conventional ecotoxicity tests. The first includes effects on division rate of unicellular organisms, reproduction of multicellular organisms, and survival; the second, cancer and the long-term (multigeneration) effects of an increased mutational load. It is concluded that, with respect to the first group of effects, mutagenicity tests can only be used as prescreening, alerting, and supporting tests; mutagenicity may play a role in its own right with respect to cancer and increased mutational load.
Additional arguments for the inclusion of mutagenicity in ecotoxicological evaluations are provided for by the actual pollution and effects encountered in the aquatic environment.
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de Raat, W.K., Vink, G.J., Hanstveit, A.O. (1990). The Significance of Mutagenicity as a Criterion in Ecotoxicological Evaluations. In: Waters, M.D., Daniel, F.B., Lewtas, J., Moore, M.M., Nesnow, S. (eds) Genetic Toxicology of Complex Mixtures. Environmental Science Research, vol 39. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-5850-3_19
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