摘要：Summary (Risk to human health associated with marine toxic algae). - Among the about 5000 of marine
algal species, some 75 produce algal toxins. These latter mainly belong to the taxa first of dynoflagellates
and then diatomes. The so far known human intoxications have been associated with mollusc consumption.
The main poisoning syndromes have been termed, on the basis of the observed syntoms, as paralytic, diarrethic,
neurotoxicand amnesic and shorthened as: PSP (paralytic shellfish poisoning), DSP (diarrhetic
shellfish poisoning), NSP (neurotoxic shellfish poisoning), ASP (amnesic shellfish poisoning), respectively.
This paper is a review of the problem of human health implications associated with marine toxic algae, with
particular reference to the situation of the Mediterranean and the Italian coastal areas.
