Ecotoxicity monitoring--use of Vibrio fischeri

The proliferation of chemical substances having the potential to pollute any environmental medium (air, land, water), or humans via occupational exposure, la considerable. Whilst chemical analytical techniques exist for the measurement of some of these chemicals, many of the methods involve costly techniques of considerable sophistication-quantification may be even more difficult. In less developed countries where sophisticated techniques may not be available or supplies of reagents, compressed gases or even electricity cannot be guaranteed, generic techniques have a great deal to offer. An emission of a chemical will cause adverse effects to organisms and hence there is an enormous advantage in measuring such effects on biological systems. One such technique is the reduction of light output In the presence of a toxicant to the marine bacteria Vibrio fischeri (formerly known as Photobacterium phosphoreum NRRL B-11177). A dark variant M-169 can also be used to obtain mutagenicity data. A chronic test whose results compare well with Ceriodaphnia dubia, has also been developed. The development of the principles of environmental toxicology assessment is reviewed together with the concept of toxic insult as a pragmatic tool in environmental risk assessment.