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Ecotoxicity in the Reconquista River, province of Buenos Aires, Argentina: a preliminary study.

1996; National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences; Volume: 104; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1289/ehp.96104186

1552-9924

Jorge Herkovits, Cristina S. Pérez‐Coll, F.D. Herkovits,

Toxic Organic Pollutants Impact

Research ArticleOpen AccessEcotoxicity in the Reconquista River, province of Buenos Aires, Argentina: a preliminary study. J Herkovits, C S Perez-Coll, and F D Herkovits J Herkovits Programa de Seguridad Quimica, Instituto de Ciencias Ambientales y Salud, Fundacion PROSAMA, Buenos Aires, Argentina. , C S Perez-Coll Programa de Seguridad Quimica, Instituto de Ciencias Ambientales y Salud, Fundacion PROSAMA, Buenos Aires, Argentina. , and F D Herkovits Programa de Seguridad Quimica, Instituto de Ciencias Ambientales y Salud, Fundacion PROSAMA, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Published:1 February 1996https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.96104186Cited by:1AboutSectionsPDF ToolsDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail AbstractThe Reconquista River in Argentina is considered a "supercritical" river basin due to environmental degradation. Within its valley of 1.547 km2, there are more than 3 million inhabitants and 12,000 industries. Using early-life-stage toxicity tests with Bufo arenarum embryos (the most sensitive of three native species), we determined the water quality at six sampling stations of the river valley and expressed the results as acute and chronic toxicity units. Along most of the river, the toxicity was higher than the allowable level of whole industrial effluent toxicity recommended by U.S. EPA. In a tributary stream, Arroyo Moron, the water was about 10 times more toxic than the criteria maximum concentration (CMC) recommended by U.S. EPA for industrial effluents. Similar degradation of the water quality was found taking as a reference value an upstream sampling station. In all places where the water quality was worse than the CMC, no macroorganisms were found, and in one of these places, a large number of dead fishes was observed. Our study points out that amphibian early-life-stage toxicity tests could be appropriate for assessing water contamination and water quality, which is essential for diagnosis, protection of environmental services, monitoring, and restoration purposes.FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsCited ByHerkovits J (2006) Evoecotoxicology: Environmental Changes and Life Features Development during the Evolutionary Process—the Record of the Past at Developmental Stages of Living Organisms, Environmental Health Perspectives, 114:8, (1139-1142), Online publication date: 1-Aug-2006. Vol. 104, No. 2 February 1996Metrics About Article Metrics Publication History Originally published1 February 1996Published in print1 February 1996 Financial disclosures License information EHP is an open-access journal published with support from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health. All content is public domain unless otherwise noted. Note to readers with disabilities EHP strives to ensure that all journal content is accessible to all readers. However, some figures and Supplemental Material published in EHP articles may not conform to 508 standards due to the complexity of the information being presented. If you need assistance accessing journal content, please contact [email protected]. Our staff will work with you to assess and meet your accessibility needs within 3 working days.