Organic solvents can make their way into the environment as industrial wastes and components of pesticide formulations. In laboratory bioassays, the use of organic solvents is unavoidable since many pesticides and organic pollutants have low water solubilities and need to be dissolved in organic solvents prior to addition into experimental systems. So, one area of concern with laboratory bioassays is the stress imposed on test organisms by organic solvents. Most reports on the comparative toxicity of solvents towards test organisms deals with the effects of solvents on fish and aquatic invertebrates with some data available for blue-green algae and green algae. The US Environmental Protection Agency recommends maximum allowable limits of 0.05% solvent for acute tests and 0.01% for chronic tests but, in the literature, the nature of the solvent and the final concentration used vary among the different authors and are often higher than EPA limits due to problems associated with the use of small test volumes and toxicant solubility. Organic solvents can cause toxic effects on their own, but it has been also reported that they can interact with pesticides to alter toxicity. The first step in choosing a solvent for use in bioassays should be a detailedmore » screening to identify solvents with inherently low toxicity to the test organism, followed by an interaction study (pesticide and solvent interactions) to choose the best concentration to use. The purpose of this study is to compare the inhibitory effects of our solvents used in pesticide bioassays towards the growth of two green algae. 18 refs., 4 figs., 1 tabs.« less