Gentoxische Substanzen in Wässern

The contamination of waste waters with genotoxic compounds has raised concern about the toxicological impact on man and ecosystems. Some epidemiological studies showed a correlation between contamination of water with genotoxic compounds and incidence of cancer in man, fish, and mussels. This review of published literature summarizes results of the mutagenic potential of waste water from various industries. The Ames assay is frequently used as test system for mutagenicity of organic and inorganic compounds. Some investigations tried to identify the sources of mutagenic contamination. A variety of organic (e.g. nitroaromatic compounds, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, azo-dyes, chlorinated hydroxyfuranes) and inorganic (e.g. heavy metals) mutagenes were identified but it was not possible to attribute the whole mutagenic potential to analytically identified compounds. Due to the lack of data it is presently not possible to perform a risk assessment for humans.