Animal Indicators of Adverse Effects Associated with Air Pollution

ABSTRACT

The possibilities for using animal indicators for air pollution studies are reviewed. Three major problems are discussed: bioconcentration of trace elements, alterations of physiological parameters, and genotoxic effects. Sentinel species seem to be useful bioaccumulators of environmental trace elements and may be the first choice for detecting pollutants whenever there is a high affinity between the pollutant and a specific animal tissue. Also metallothionein levels of different invertebrate organisms has been shown to be a very sensitive indicator of metal pollution. The assessment of the pulmonary functions, the regulation of airway caliber, and mucociliary clearance in animals exposed to polluted urban air is presented and their advantages for estimating physiological damages induced by air pollution are advocated. Considering the availability of easy techniques to evaluate genetic damage, sentinel species have proven to be an attractive approach to detect genotoxic effects in all kinds of environmental pollution. A continuous effort of the scientific community is necessary to establish the importance of animal sentinel studies on the process of evaluating risks and formulating regulatory procedures.