ABSTRACT
Environmental chemicals and pollutants, including metals, aromatic hydrocarbons, substituted aromatic hydrocarbons, dyes, chlorinated hydrocarbons, phenols and substituted phenols, nitrosoamines, crude oil and petroleum, and contaminated sediment cause invertebrate diseases, including neoplasms. Investigators adapted many toxicology testing methods from classical mammalian single agent/single species studies, this included five different routes of exposure: immersion in solutions, direct application, implants, injection, and dosed feeding. The compound in oysters also induced leucocytic infiltration, and histological alterations of digestive diverticula and associated connective tissue. Toxicological testing of phenol and cresol in studies with jellyfish and pentachlorophenol in relation to morphological changes in quahog digestive epithelial cells complete the list of studies of these compounds. The modern survey studies of invertebrate diseases in chemically degraded aquatic environments consist of examinations of indigenous species 88%, and deployment of healthy organisms into degraded environments 12% of the time.
