Comparative toxic and genotoxic effects of chloroacetanilides, formamidines and their degradation products on Vibrio fischeri and Chironomus riparius

Toxic and genotoxic effects of alachlor, metolachlor, amitraz, chlordimeform, their respective environmentally stable degradation products 2,6-diethylaniline, 2-ethyl-4-methylaniline, 2,4-dimethylaniline, and two other related compounds, 3,4-dichloroaniline and aniline were compared. Acute toxicity tests with Chironomus riparius (96 h) and Vibrio fischeri (Microtox®) and genotoxicity tests with a dark mutant of V. fischeri (Mutatox®) were carried out. Our results demonstrate that toxicity and genotoxicity of the pesticides are retained upon degradation to their alkyl-aniline metabolites. In the case of the herbicides alachlor and metolachlor, the toxicity to V. fischeri was enhanced upon degradation. Narcosis alone explains toxicity of the compounds to the midge, but not so for the bacteria suggesting a disparity in the selectivity of the test systems. All compounds showed direct genotoxicity in the Vibrio test, but amitraz and its metabolite were genotoxic at concentrations 103-105 lower than all the other compounds. The observations indicate that stable aniline degradation products of the pesticides may contribute considerably to environmental risks of pesticides application and that genotoxic effects may arise upon degradation of pesticides. © 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.