Toxicological response and sensitivity of estuarine macro-invertebrates exposed to industrial effluents.

The evaluation of toxicological response and sensitivity of some tropical estuarine benthic macro-intertebrates, Clibanarius africanus (Aurivillus) and Tympanotonus fuscatus var radula L. under acute exposure to effluents from brewery, paint and textile industrial establishments in Lagos state, Nigeria was carried out in static laboratory bioassays. On the basis of computed toxicity factors (96h LC50 ratios), the brewery effluent was found to be 6.90 times more toxic than the other test media against the exposed animal. The toxicity sensitivity ranking order for the test animals revealed that C. africanus was more susceptible to the toxicants than T. fuscatus. The relevance of the results in toxicity evaluation and setting realistic environmental standards for aquatic ecosystems in Nigeria is discussed.