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.