Genotoxicity of By-products in the Chemical Oxidation Processes

The umu-test, which can detect the genotoxicity by the induction of error in the repair of damaged DNA, was applied to chemicals which are produced in the chlorination and ozonation processes. In this research, 37 commercial chemicals were tested by the umu-test. When the retention time of the test strain with chemicals was 2 hours, the genotoxicity of the following organic chemicals were clearly detected with and/or without microsomal activation : m-dichlorobenzene ; 1, 2, 4-trichlorobenzene ; bromoform ; dichloroacetic acid ; trichloroacetic acid ; chloral ; formaldehyde ; ionone ; furfurol ; carvone ; glyoxal and acrolein. These dose response results are discussed and compared with results obtained in other bacterial assays. Some of the selected organic compounds - chloroform, bromoform, trichloroethylene, acethyl acetone, acrolein, etc. - were identified as having genotoxicity which increased as the reaction time became longer values. From these results, it can be shown that there are different rate of transportation of chemicals across the cell membrane, the rate of damage and repair of DNA.