THE USE OF THE SALMONELLA MICROSOME MUTAGENICITY TEST FOR THE CHARACTERIZATION OF ORGANIC EXTRACTS FROM AMBIENT PARTICULATE MATTER

Among several solvents tested, acetone gives the highest extraction efficiency. A comparison between different sampling sites, traffic tunnel, urban street, urban rooftop, and a rural location during episodes of long-range aerosol transport, indicates that there are differences with respect to the mutagenic response per particle mass and amount of selected PAH. Tests in the absence and presence of mammalian metobolic activation, tests with enzyme deficient strains, and tests with fractionated samples all indicate that a large part of the recovered mutagenic activity is cuased by relatively polar compounds containing nitro groups that can be activated by bacterial enzymes.