Environmental Effects of Dredging Technical Notes. Assessment of the Genotoxic Potential of Dredged Material

Download or read book Environmental Effects of Dredging Technical Notes. Assessment of the Genotoxic Potential of Dredged Material written by and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 6 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This technical note describes an approach for assessing the genotoxic potential of dredged material. The use of integrated batteries of rapid and mechanistically interpretable in vitro and in vivo assays in a tiered approach is fundamental to applied toxicology. The research described here brings this approach to the testing of sediments. Work completed to date and future work will mesh to form an advanced and cost-effective methodology. The purpose of this methodology is to increase the accuracy of environmental risk assessments and facilitate making decisions concerning open-water disposal of dredged material. A great number of the contaminants typically found in dredged material are toxic to exposed organisms through effects on DNA. Such effects are usually the result of low-level chronic exposures. These effects can result in reproductive failure of organisms, impaired growth and development of offspring, and tumors (often cancerous) in vertebrates. Collectively, such effects are called 'genotoxicity' and result from damage to the genome of a cell. The damage is heritable, that is, passed on to future cell generations upon duplication of the affected cells.