PARENT SESSION
1E Biologically based risk assessment and risk management
9:00 AM to 7:00 PM, Monday, 07 May 2001

(M/EH035) Heavy metal concentrations and internal organs′ structure in rodents near steelworks and zinc smelters.

Damek-Poprawa, Monika¹, Sawicka-Kapusta, Katarzyna¹, ¹

ABSTRACT- Rodents– good monitors of the environmental contamination– are commonly used to assess the threat of pollution to animal health and the environment as a whole. Bank voles and yellow-necked mice from the neighbourhood of two steelworks (in Krakow and in Warsaw) and two zinc smelters (in the Upper Silesia region: in Bukowno and in Miasteczko Slaskie) were trapped. Borecka forest in the north of Poland was chosen as a control area. Lead, cadmium, iron, copper and zinc concentrations in liver, kidneys, femurs and testis were analysed. Iron, copper and zinc levels in tissues are physiologically regulated and their concentrations did not exceed the critical values. As for lead and cadmium, they are non-essential and highly toxic for organisms. The statistically significant highest concentrations of lead were found in femurs of bank voles from Bukowno and of yellow-necked mice from Miasteczko Slaskie. There was 61,42±16,19 g of Pb/g and 17,48±2,89 g of Pb/g respectively. The highest concentrations of cadmium were found in kidneys of bank voles also from Bukowno and of yellow-necked mice from Miasteczko Slaskie: 32,98±6,14 g Cd/g and 6,59±1,32g Pb/g respectively. In these animals a gradual destruction of the proximal tubule cells was observed. Cadmium intoxication caused a haemoglobinuria too. Heavy metals induced also histomorphological changes in livers of these rodents. Several misshapen nuclei were observed. Decrease of glycogen content in the hepatocytes of yellow-necked mice was detected. These effects were found neither in rodents from a control region nor from a neighbourhood of steelworks. The results show that examined zinc smelters present a considerable threat to the environment as well as to people living in these areas.

Key words: heavy metals, rodents, histopathology