DNA damage in an estuarine fish inhabiting the vicinity of a major Brazilian port.

The Itaqui Port Complex (northeastern Brazil) is one of the largest Brazilian port facilities, whose effluents and waste are dumped directly into the estuarine waters. Although environmental monitoring has been a concern around this site, there has been no toxicogenetics study on organisms living in this environment. Thus, we assessed the toxicogenetics potential of the estuarine waters surrounding Itaqui, using the native catfish Sciades herzbergii as a biomonitor. We found a significantly higher frequency of genetic damage and mutations in the animals collected near to Itaqui in both seasons compared to the reference site (distant from Itaqui with no port activities). We also quantified chemical elements in the surface water and sediments near the port and found that clorine, phosphorus, zinc, and boron were above the limits set by the Brazilian legislation. We suggest that such contaminants are involved in the origin of DNA damage. Moreover, we recommend including toxicogenetics assays in the environmental monitoring of pollutants, as well as in the definition of their allowable limits, as they could be used as law enforcement tools and help to predict large-scale contamination events associated with port activities.