Acute toxicity and bioaccumulation of arsenic in freshwater clam Corbicula fluminea
Journal
Environmental Toxicology
Journal Volume
23
Journal Issue
6
Pages
702-711
Date Issued
2008
Abstract
Arsenic is a potent human carcinogen of skin, lung, and urinary bladder. Freshwater clam Corbicula fluminea is a commercially important native species in Taiwan. C. fluminea is also a suitable biomonitoring test organism. Little is known, however, about the actual effects of arsenic on C. fluminea. The objectives of this study were to provide information on the acute toxicity and bioaccumulation kinetics of arsenic in C. fluminea. We carried out a 14-day exposure experiment to obtain bioaccumulation parameters. Uptake was very rapid when C. fluminea was first exposed and then slightly decayed during the uptake phase of the experiment and an uptake rate constant of 1.718 ± 6.70 (mean ± SE) mL g-1 d-1 was estimated. The elimination of arsenic from C. fluminea obeyed first-order depuration kinetics (r2 = 0.85, p < 0.05) with a calculated half-life of 6.80 days. The derived bioaccumulation factor of 16.84 suggests that arsenic has a high potential for bioaccumulation in C. fluminea. This had important implications for dietary exposure of arsenic to humans who eat contaminated clams, because the soft tissue usually constitutes the majority of tissue consumed. The 96-h LC50 value was estimated to be 20.74 (95% CI: 11.74-30.79) mg L-1 obtained from a 7-day acute toxicity bioassay. We also kinetically linked an acute toxicity model and a Hill sigmoid model to reconstruct an internal effect concentration based dose-response profile to assess the effect of soft tissue arsenic burden on the C. fluminea mortality. This result could be used to support the establishment of an ecological risk assessment to prevent possible ecosystem and human health consequences. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Subjects
Acute toxicity; Arsenic; Bioaccumulation; Corbicula fluminea; Dose-response
Other Subjects
Bioaccumulation; Bioassay; Biochemistry; Concentration (process); Health risks; Nonmetals; Rate constants; Risk assessment; Risk management; Risk perception; Toxicity; Acute toxicities; Acute toxicity; Bioaccumulation factors; Biomonitoring; Corbicula fluminea; Depuration; Dietary exposures; Dose-response; Ecological risk assessments; First orders; High potentials; Human carcinogens; Human healths; Internal effects; Native species; Response profiles; Sigmoid models; Soft tissues; Test organisms; Urinary bladders; Arsenic; arsenic; arsenic; bioaccumulation; biomonitoring; bivalve; concentration (composition); depuration; dose-response relationship; mortality; toxicity; acute toxicity; article; bioaccumulation; bioassay; clam; controlled study; Corbicula; Corbicula fluminea; dose response; drug elimination; drug uptake; half life time; LC 50; nonhuman; priority journal; risk assessment; soft tissue; Acute Toxicity Tests; Algorithms; Animals; Arsenic; Corbicula; Food Poisoning; Fresh Water; Half-Life; Humans; Public Health; Time Factors; Water Pollutants, Chemical; Bivalvia; Corbicula fluminea
Type
journal article