ABSTRACT
Traditional toxicological analysis and the analysis of environmental effects of chlorinated aromatic acetanilides indicate high toxicity for hydrobionts and moderate toxicity for mammalia; some chlorinated compounds and their degradation products are also found to be mutagenic and persistent in the environment.1-2 Whilst it sounds alarming, it is worth remembering that one of aromatic amides Paracetamol (Panadol) is a popular mild analgetic antiinflammatory drug. It was Paracelsus who was the first to say: ’the dose makes the poison’ (year 1567). Nowadays the ecotoxicological analysis of chemical substances include the following issues:
(i) What is the range of doses or concentrations; (ii) What is the toxicity class of the compound analyzed;
(iii) What mechanism exists in the selected species; (iv) Does the mechanism depend upon the dose/concentration of the compound applied and does the
phenomenon of hormesis exist; (v) What are the differences in the toxicity effects of structural congeners of the same chemical class;
(vi) What are the differences of the toxicity effects in intact cells and sensibilized (ie lyophilized/ revitalized) cells used in commercial toxkits; and
(vii )
What is the magnitude of the uncertainty factors that need to be applied for the calculation of environmental risk of chemicals based on the origin of existing data?
