We used neutral red retention assay in lysosomes of digestive gland cells as an indicator for stress effects by the environmental contaminants Cu, Cd, and the pesticide methoxychlor in two freshwater molluscs, the unionid mussel, Elliptio complanata (Lightfoot) and the ramshorn snail Helisoma trivolvis (Say). Mussels and snails were exposed for 7 and 14 days to Cu and Cd each at nominal concent...

Acute and chronic toxicity of eight agricultural adjuvants (Bond, Kinetic, Plyac, R-11, Silwet L-77, Sylgard 309, X-77, and WaterMaxx) to Daphnia pulex were evaluated with 48-h acute lethal concentration estimates (LC50) and a 10-d population growth-rate measurement, the instantaneous rate of increase (r1). Based on LC50, the order of toxicity was R-11 > X-77 = Sylgard 309 = Silwet L-77 > Kinet...

BACKGROUND Metformin is a drug used in the treatment of diabetes and of some disorders related to insulin resistance, such as polycystic ovary syndrome. Gestational diabetes can cause complications for both mother and child, and some studies have shown a beneficial effect of metformin during pregnancy without an increase in perinatal complications. However, the effects on the gonads have not be...

_Treating the wastewater with high level of urea and ammonia-nitrogen is one of the problems faced by urea fertilizer plants in Indonesia. The alternative treatment being studied is the one which uses Fenton oxidation process which is continued with the use of Pseudomonas fluorescens bacteria. This study is conducted with the concentration of ammonia-nitrogen of 2500 ppm, 2000 ppm, and 1500 ppm...

The effects of three suspected endocrine disrupting chemicals, the xeno-estrogens bisphenol A (BPA), 4-tert-octylphenol (OP) and 4-n-nonylphenol (NP), were investigated in a whole-sediment biotest with the freshwater mudsnail Potamopyrgus antipodarum (Gastropoda, Prosobranchia). Artificial sediments were spiked with five nominal concentrations (six for NP), ranging from 1-300 microg/kg dry weig...

Widespread use of pharmaceuticals has resulted in mixture concentrations ranging from mg/L in effluent to µg/L concentrations in surface water. In a 2008 study, 13 pharmaceuticals, ranging in amounts from 0.0028 to 0.1757 µg/l, were identified in the Tennessee River, USA and its tributaries. In order to address the need for risk assessment of environmentally relevant pharmaceutical mixtures, <e...

In pesticide risk assessment, effect concentrations and dynamics of long-term community-level effects caused by pulse exposures remain to be investigated. This is because long-term experiments are exceptionally rare, and most of the previously investigated communities had low proportions of sensitive long-living species. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of a single pul...

Contamination of surface waters by pharmaceutical chemicals has raised concern among environmental scientists because of the potential for negative effects on aquatic organisms. Of particular importance are pharmaceutical compounds that affect the nervous or endocrine systems because effects on aquatic organisms are possible at low environmental concentrations. Selective serotonin reuptake inhi...