Mutagenicity of airborne particles from a nonindustrial town in Italy

Abstract

The mutagenic activity of airborne particulate matter collected in Pisa, a small nonindustrial town located in Italy, has been monitored over 1 year using the Ames Salmonella Test. Airborne particulate was collected on fibreglass filters using a Hi-Vol sampler and extracted by sonication and Soxhlet acetone extraction in sequence. TA 98 and TA 100 salmonella strains gave positive results with the great majority of samples. The mutagenicity trend fits with a harmonic regression with a peak during December/January and inversely correlates with the temperature. No correlations were observed with other meteorological conditions such as wind, cloud, rainfall, atmospheric pressure, and humidity. The ratio between mutagenicity/microgram of particulate matter with S9 and that without S9 remains more or less constant regardless of seasonal fluctuations, suggesting that during cold months quantitative increases of mutagens onto particulate matter have probably occurred. The comparison of air mutagenicity in different sites suggests that motor vehicle exhaust fumes are the major source of air pollution. Finally, because of high-traffic volume, air mutagenicity at street level is comparable to that observed in several metropolitan areas all over the world.

Correlation between meteorological conditions and mutagenicity of airborne particupate samples in a tropical monsoon climate area from Kaohsiung City, Taiwan

“…Interestingly, two peaks of mutagenicity in November and April were observed. The results seem to differ from previous reports, which indicated a single peak of mutagenicity in the cold season, especially in December or January [Daisey et al, 1980;Barale et al, 1989;Catoggio et al, 1989;Motykiewicz et al, 19891. These reports indicated that the higher mutagenicity of the air samples collected during the cold months could be due to greater amounts of mutagens produced by the combustion processes of domestic heating.…”

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and air mutagenicity: Results of one year monitoring at an urban site

“…In that study, mutagenicity data collected over a 6 months period were analyzed in connection with the concentrations of several volatile and particles-bound organic and inorganic micropollutants in order to expand current knowledge of sources and environmental behaviour of airborne mutagens. Statistical analyses of the data highlighted an inverse relationship between air mutagenicity and ambient temperature, in agreement with other investigations (Barale et al 1989, Nardini and Clonfero 1992, Scarpato etal. 1993, and an enrichment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons with relatively lower boiling point ( < 500°C) in the most mutagenic samples.…”

Chemical characterization and biological properties of airborne particulate matter

“…Analysis of the mutagenicity data indicates that there is variability in the different samples; the winter values being significantly higher than those obtained in the other seasons as previously reported (Lioy and Daysey, 1986;Alink et al, 1989, Barale et al, 1989. This can be explained by two factors: the first, the physico-chemical properties of mutagenic POM, the second the metereological conditions.…”

“…If this assumption is correct, it is not suprising that also in relatively small non-industrialized towns, there could be significant levels of mutagenic material present, especially if the sampling is done in busy streets, as reported for the Italian town Pisa (Barale et al, 1989) and for other European cities (Alfheim and Moeller, 1980;Lofroth, 1980, Courtosis etal., 1984. In this connection it is also important to underline the positive and highly significant degree of correlation between PAHs and Pb, that could indicate traffic as the most important source of pollution.…”