Of the various toxic elements heavy metals, particularly cadmium, lead, mercury and zinc, occur frequently in the environment due to their relatively high industrial use. While the toxicity of individual substances is usually well known, information about their mutual interactions is relatively scarce. In animal experiments the prevailing trend is to substitute higher vertebrates with biotests of the 2nd generation. Our experiment focused on observation of the effect of combinations of ZnSO4.7H2O and CdCl2.2H2O on lethality to Artemia franciscana. The aim of the study was to observe the synergistic or antagonistic effects of these two metals. Depending on concentration, cadmium may increase or decrease the toxicity of zinc. at higher concentrations of CdCl2.2H2O exceeding 100 mg l-1 one can observe obvious synergistic toxic effects of both the substances. Our observations allowed us to conclude that the use of optimum, relatively low concentrations of cadmium (up to 50 mg l-1 CdCl2.2H2O) results in a significant decrease in lethality to Artemia franciscana caused by ZnSO4.7H2O at concentrations of 50, 100 a 250 mg l-1 |
