A firefly luciferase assay of bacterial adenosine triphosphate (ATP) was developed to measure the toxic effects of cadmium ions on aquatic organisms. Toxicity was monitored using intracellular (I/C) ATP (in micrograms per litre) as well as plate counts (colony-forming units per millilitre). The bacteria, which belonged mainly to the families Enterobacteriaceae and Pseudomonadaceae, exhibited varying degrees of resistance to up to 100 ppm cadmium when grown in a glucose-salts medium at pH 6.8. Among the organisms tested, cadmium resistance decreased in the following order: Pseudomonas vesicularis > P. aeruginosa > Enterobacter sp. > P. fluorescens > Chromobacter sp. > Serratia sp. A rise in the pH of the growth medium from 5 to 7 resulted in increased toxicity of cadmium.