RESULTS OF WATER-QUALITY MONITORING IN THE ELBE RIVER BELOW PARDUBICE

Experiments with rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) were used in the stud y of cumulation of xenobiotic substances occurring in Elbe water in bi ota's tissues and their effects on health and reproduction. Samples of feed water (Valy profile of Elbe and Prague tape waters), sewage wate r from chemical works Synthesia Semtin Co., water from soils where hay was harvested for rabbit feeding, water from fodder (hay and premixes ), skeleton muscles, depot fat, liver, blood, and plasma of rabbits we re analyzed and pathomorphological investigations of internal organs w ere performed. As, Hg, Cd, Pb, Cr, Ni, Cu, and Zn were measured as haz ardous elements and strippable non-polar compounds, PCB, chlorinated p esticides, polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), chloro- and nitrophenols, triazines, aromatic amines, and nitroaromatics as organic xenobiotic c ompounds (OXC). Non-polar OXC were determined in rabbit fat, polar OXC in muscles. Elbe water and sewage water from Synthesia were fractione d and the fractions were tested on mutagenity according to Ames. Highe r content of Cd was found in the tissues of rabbits fed with hay from land inundated with Elbe water below Pardubice than in those fed with hay from a control locality. However, the permissible limits have not been exceeded in all hazardous elements. In comparison to the control, higher content was found for some PAH (fluoranthene, pyrene, phenanth rene) in rabbit fat. The highest mutagenic activity showed polar subst ances (chloro- and nitrophenols, aromatic amines, and nitroaromatics).