ABSTRACT
The genetic impact of pollutants corresponds to the overall effect of the various contaminants which interact within the aquatic environment and are all very unstable. Inorganic chemical contaminants, trace metals or others, such as arsenic, selenium, fluoride, nitrate, and sulfate may be present naturally in ground or surface waters. Agricultural activity is another important source of water organic contaminants. The large number and wide variety of chemical contaminants associated with geographical, geological, and climatic conditions, which are never the same, do not make it possible to evaluate the interactions among the contaminants themselves and between these contaminants and the very unstable aquatic environment. Prolonged exposure of living organisms to the radiation of radioisotopes during their transformation may affect the genetic material, alter the genome, and induce disadvantageous mutations and/or sterility of certain communities of the biocenose, and as a consequence a break in the equilibrium will occur.
