Use of Fish to
Detect Organic Insecticides in Water
CHARLES M. WEISS, Professor of Environmental Biology
Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering
School of Public Health
University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
INTRODUCTION
The degradation of waters resulting from waste disposal, whether municipal,
industrial or agricultural, is often evidenced by the absence of fish life where such
fauna had previously been abundant. It is possible to assess the toxicity of man-
made substances in water, therefore, by the obvious technique of employing organisms whose natural habitat is the aquatic environment. One of the first experimental studies on the effects of toxic substances on fish was that of Powers (1)
who used the goldfish as a test animal in studies of its reaction to various toxic
salts. He quickly recognized the significance of various factors which limited
the response of fish to toxic substances in solution, and in 1920 (2) he published
on the influence of temperature and concentration on the toxicity of salts to
fishes. In a series of papers starting in 1930, Gersdorsf (3,4,5) attempted to develop an understanding of the toxicity of the specific fish poisons of the rotenone
series and to develop a criterion for comparing toxicity with concentration and
time.
Following the classic work of Ellis (6), in which many substances found in
streams were tabulated as to their toxicity to fish, as known at that time, and
the early work of Hart and associates in the standardization of bio-assay procedures (7,8), the next major step in the utilization of fish as detectors of toxic
materials in water was the action of the Committee on Research, Sub-Committee
on Toxicology of the Federation of Sewage Industrial Waste Associations to outline a standard bio-assay method (9). The general acceptance of this standard
procedure was quickly followed by its endorsement in general terms as a method
acceptable to the American Society for Testing Materials (10). Within a few
years many papers appeared in which a specific toxic tolerance of compounds,
other than insecticides, to various species of fish were reviewed (11,12) or determined (13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20), as well as modifications or improvements
on the standardized bio-assay procedure (21,22,23). Other investigators were
evaluating the specific factors which affect the toxic response of various species
of fish to substances in water (24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32).
With the establishment of a standard procedure for evaluation of the toxicity
of specific substances as well as mixed wastes of varying industrial origin, utilization of fish for the determination of the significance of these compounds in
surface waters proceeded rapidly. Investigations of this type are found in the
literature (33,34,35,36,37,38). It should be noted, however, that studies of this
nature were being made as early as 1927 by Belding (33).
In a recent volume, Doudoroff (40) has prepared a chapter on the water
quality requirements of fishes and the effects of toxic substances. He notes that
due to the extremely voluminous literature on fish toxicology, certain references
(41,42,43,44,45,46,47) with literature summaries are particularly useful for
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