Bacterial mutagenicity and chemical analysis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and some nitro derivatives in environmental samples collected in West Germany

Abstract

Snow and air particulate samples collected in Upper Frankonia, Federal Republic of Germany, have been analyzed for nitro-polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and PAH content. A novel clean-up technique has been developed enabling interfering organochlorine environmental contaminants to be removed prior to analysis of the hydrocarbons by GC-MS. Mass fragmentation patterns are presented for 1-nitropyrene, 6-nitrobenzo(a)pyrene, 6-nitrochrysene, and 3-nitrofluoranthene. The level of these compounds found in air samples was in the range of 0.2-2.0 ng.m-3 with the exception of 6-nitrobenzo(a)pyrene, which was not detected. This compares with PAH values of between 1 and 6 ng.m-3. The freshly fallen snow sample collected at the side of a motorway had no detectable PAHs or nitro-PAHs. Parallel studies on the bacterial mutagenicity of the collected air samples using Salmonella typhimurium TA98 and TA100 in the presence and absence of aroclor-induced rat liver "S9" revealed both "direct" and "indirect" activity. Larger numbers of mutants were induced in the presence of S9 than in its absence. The snow sample was devoid of mutagenic activity. These studies show the utility of the biological approach to screen environmental samples prior to expensive and time-consuming chemical analysis.

Organic pollutants in snow of urban and rural Russia and Finland

“…Neulaniemi (Kuopio, Central-Eastern Finland), 2. Nellim (Lapland, Finland), 3. Muonio (Lapland, Finland), 4.…”

“…The idea was to collect snow in spring to elucidate the overall amount of pollutants transported by air in various regions during winter period [2]. The freshly fallen snow usually do not contain any pollutants [3]. Actually analysis of snow samples is quite useful approach for mapping of territories to compare health problems of the population with the qualitative and quantitative composition of the atmospheric organic and inorganic pollutants.…”

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH): Carcinogenicity data and risk extrapolations

“…19 -37 " 39 Ambient levels of a few nitrated PAH have been determined (1-nitropyrene, 6-nitrobenzo(a)pyrene, 9-nitroanthracene, 3-nitrofluoranthene, 6-nitrochrysene) and were generally found to be low compared to their mother-compounds, 40 " 42 or in the same order of magnitude. 43 Thus, a preliminary conclusion might be that the extraordinary mutagenic potency of these substances in microbial systems is not reflected quantitatively in a similarly predominant contribution, relative to PAH, to ambient air carcinogenicity. However, the data base is limited to only a few of the nitrated PAH.…”

Bacterial Mutagenicity and Acute Toxicity of Solvent and Aqueous Extracts of Soil Samples From an Abandoned Chemical Manufacturing Site

“…The quantity of BAP in emissions from a firefighter training facility accounted for approximately 20% of the total mutagenicity of the sample [2]. Both Tokiwa et al [3] and Garner et al [4] suggest that nitropolynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (nitro-PNAs), present at levels that were below the detection limits of the instrument used, were responsible for a large portion of the mutagenic activity of air samples. In addition, Flessel et al [5] indicated that less than 2% of the mutagenic activity of an air sample could be accounted for by the BAP content.…”