ABSTRACT
It is often difficult to decide if a chemical to which an organism is exposed is the chemical which is causing the toxicity, i.e. whether it is bioactivated. Sometimes bioactivation converts one toxic substance to another, e.g. phenylmercury has the lipophilic properties to penetrate the brain and cause neurotoxicity but because it is converted rather rapidly to inorganic mercury the predominant lesion is in the kidney (Gage, 1964). When the mechanism of toxicity is established or even if only some of the effects in vivo are defined it is relatively easy to devise comparative techniques to establish that others are being bioactivated.
