Chemical Characteristics and Mutagenicities of Carcinogenic Extractable Organic Matters in Airborne Particulates

Air suspedned particulates are the most serious factor among air pollutants in Seoul and their extracts have been revealed to be pulmonary carcinogenes. Air particulates were collected at a site representative of the high traffic area of Seoul from December 1993 to May 1994. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and nitroarenes in organic extracts of air particulates were determined by gas chromatography and mutagenicity of particle extracts was evaluated by the pre-incubation procedure with Salmonella typhirnurium TA98 and TA 98NR. The average concentration of total suspended particulates and inhalable (less than 10 m) particulates were 169.63 , 141.92 , respectively. The relative contribution of organic matters was highest in neutral fraction and was lowest in basic fraction. Among identified 20 PAHs, the level of PAHs with 4-benzen ring i.e., pyrene, benzo(a)anthracene and chrysene were much higher than the PAHs with higher ring numbers. The mutagenicity of air particulates was much higher in the presence of rat liver microsomai fraction (S9 mixture) than that observed in its absence, which indicates that air particulates contained both direct and indirect mutagens. Nitroarenes in this study were not almost detected but mutagenicity of their fraction was higher. These results are represent to research for the identification of nitroarenes in the forward study.ope