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The antifouling agent tributyltin (TBT) is extremely toxic to some aquatic organisms. The accumulation of hutyltin compounds in the tissues of freshwater mussels from contaminated areas in Ontario was studied in the field with caged mussels (Elliptio complanata). Mussels were placed in four sites for U months, and one site for 6 months, in locations of previous contamination of water and sediments. Additional cages were exposed for 5 months at two of the sites to study the effect of mussel size on accumulation. The mussels were collected at regular intervals for butyltin analysis. After almost one year of exposure at four locations, the TBT contents in tissue of mussels were 9 to 148 ng as Sn/g (wet weight). The results showed that concentrations of TBT in mussels were related to the mussel size and the concentrations of TBT in contaminated aquatic areas, and that concentrations in mussel tissue increased dramatically over winter. The results of the experiment demonstrated that caged mussels are useful for indicating the presence of TBT in aquatic systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]