Food additives and, in particular, food colours are becoming more widespread in all countries. The review is devoted to the least studied problem of synthetic food colours safety assessment approved for use in the Russian Federation to the analysis of their genotoxic effect (mechanisms, methods of determination and results of studies on various living objects). Presented results of the synthetic food colours genotoxicity half-century study demonstrated that among of studied colours there was none for which unambiguous research results were obtained, that allows us to conclude the possibility of their real mutagenic and/or carcinogenic danger. It is shown that the problem of the dose range selecting for genotoxicity testing, the associated problem of impurities control as well as approaches to test systems and test objects selection are the key to ensuring the genetic/carcinogenic safety of food colours. These problems are aggravated by the fact that in Russian Federation there is no unified system for food colours genetic safety assessing. So the main task of this publication is to prove the urgent necessity for elaboration of this system and outline group of main problems associated therewith.

Cyclohexene exhibits no mutagenic effect in the Ames test. Products of its transformation (chlorination) produced a mutagenic effect in the Ames test on TA 100 strain without metabolic activation and in the micronucleus test on epithelial cells from mouse urinary bladder and colon. These findings are consistent with epidemiological data on higher incidence of urinary bladder and rectal cancers in subjects consuming chlorinated drinking water from surface water reservoirs.

Introduction. One of the important steps in assessing the nanoparticles (NP) safety is the analysis of mutagenic activity, including the evaluation of gene, chromosomal, and genomic mutations. Material and methods. The purpose of this investigation is to study the ability of different NP aqueus suspensions and the same compounds in microforms to unduce gene mutations in Salmonella/microsome test (Ames test). Anatase titanium dioxide NP coated with simethicone (33.16 ± 16.7 nm, 5-50000 μg/ml), magnetite NP coated with silicate (10 nm, 0.92-575 μg/ml), silver NP coated with аrabian gum (14 ± 0.2 nm, 5-50000 μg/ml), aluminum hydroxide nanofibres (50-70 nm, 24-3000 μg/ml) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (Taunit MWСNTs, outer diameter 15-40 nm, inner diameter 3-8 nm, length 2 and more microns, 5-50000 μg/ml). In parallel, the mutagenic activity of equivalent microparticles was evaluated in experiments. Ames test (Salmonella/microsomes) registers gene mutations induced by a different mechanism of action, in the variant with preincubation. A set of Salmonella typhimurium indicator strains: TA 100 (base pair substitution mutations), TA 98 and TA 97 (mutations of the frameshift type of the genetic code) were used. Using addition the S9 microsomal activating mixture during the experiment makes it is possible to determine the effect not only of the substances themselves, but also of their metabolites. Conclusion. The investigated nanomaterials as well as their micro analogs in the studied dose range did not induce gene mutations in the Ames test both in presence and absence microsomal activating mixture.

For the first time the impact of odorous emissions from the enterprise for the production of chewing gum on the cytogenetic status of children, residing in the distance of 0,9 and 6 km, was studied. Specific weak mint and fruity odour in the air in the placement of the enterprise may be related to the presence of menthol, menthone, pinene, limonene, ethyl acetate and other compounds containing in the emissions. There were no differences in cytogenetic status of children in both groups (by frequency of micronuclei, protrusions, binucleated cells, apoptosis).

Allium cepa assay is one of the relevant methods for the cytogenetic analysis. Today modern anti-icing reagents seem to be unstudied in the field of cytogenetics studies. The aim of the experiment is to study the phytotoxic and cytogenetic activity of multi-component anti-icing material using an onion Allium cepa. We researched anti-icing concentrations in the range of from 1 to 100 g/l. The test object was onion «Stuttgarter risen» variety couched in anti-icing solutions during the 72 hours. According to the assessment of phytotoxic effects, there was estimated the number of roots, the length of the longest root and the length of all roots for the every onion plant. The parallel experiment included the phytotoxic research of the same anti-icing using wheat seeds according to method MR 2.1.7.2297-07. Every onion roots were cut away, fixed, painted and pressured for microscopic analysis for the purposes of the cytogenetic research. About 2000 cells were analyzed for each onion. We estimated the number of mitosis per 1000 cells (mitotic index, ‰) and the proportion of cells in each phase of mitosis by the total number of dividing cells (%). For the analysis of cytogenetic damage using micronucleus test that provided the estimation of micronucleus, protrusions, and binuclear cells. An ana-telophase analysis included the estimation of fragments bridges and lagging chromosomes. As a result of analysis of the roots growth, we founded acting concentrations (2; 4; 10 and 100 g/l) and in-acting ones (1.3 and 1). The experiment showed the similar susceptibility of the onion and wheat root response. The mitosis analysis showed that concentrations from 1 to 1.3 g/l increased a mitosis activity and concentration of 10 g/l provided the decline of mitosis. There were no cytogenetic defects in all studied concentrations.