SECTION 7 

 ORGANOPHOSPHORUS PESTICIDES AND THEIR HAZARDS TO AQUATIC ANIMALS 

 V.I. Kozlovskaya and B.A. Flerov^ 



Recently, as replacements for DDT and other persistent organochlorine 

 insecticides, a variety of organic phosphorus compounds have been synthe- 

 sized. At present, world wide utilization of organophosphorus pesticides 

 involves more than 150 compounds (Melnykov, et a]_. 1977). As a result of 

 their large-scale production and use, this group of toxicants requires 

 investigating. 



Pesticides enter the water bodies with the industrial wastes, with the 

 flows from water collectors, with the waters from drainage systems, and from 

 the runoff and overcarriage of the spraying of fields from airplanes. 



Organophosphorus pesticides were found in the Kuban River in 7 out of 8 

 sites examined. Their concentrations varied from 0.04 to 0.3 mg/.' (Table 

 1). In 224 water samples obtained in ponds and rivers of different regions 



TABLE 1. THE AVERAGE WEIGHT OF ORGANOPHOSPHORUS PESTICIDES AT STATIONS 



IN THE KUBAN RIVER (1967-1974) 



of the Ukraine, organophosphorus compounds were present in 73. Similarly, 

 they were found in 30 out of 216 samples of bottom deposits (Kostovetsky, 

 et al_. 1976). In reservoirs of the southland west regions of Slovakia, 

 malathion and sumithion found in amounts of 0.5 - 1 mg/2. (Bilikova 1973). 



1 Institute of Biology of Inland Waters, Academy of Science, USSR, Borok, 

 Nekouz, Jaroslavl, 152742, USSR. 



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