Bioaccumulation. In toxicology, bioaccumulation is the process of accumulation of chemical substances in living organisms in such a way that they attain higher concentrations than the concentrations in the environment or in foodstuffs. Substances prone to bioaccumulation reaching increased concentrations as it progresses in the trophic level in the food chain. In function of each substance, this buildup can occur from abiotic sources 40, soil, air, water ) or biotic ( other living organisms ). The main routes of introduction of a chemical substance in a living organism are the respiratory and the digestive and the integumentaria.The term bioaccumulation was coined among the decades of 1950 and 1960 by a group of American naturalists who found high concentrations of DDT in the body of some species of birds. As a result of this discovery, DDT was banned for indiscriminate use in many countries. In addition, in the 1950's several cases of poisoning by organic mercury compounds, such as the ecological disaster of the Minamata Bay in Japan, massive were discovered where it became known of Minamata disease
