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Title: Photo-oxidation of automobile emissions: Measurements of the transformation products and their mutagenic activity

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:6710430

Dilute mixtures of automobile emissions were irradiated in a smog chamber and tested for mutagenic activity by using a variant of the Salmonella test. The exhaust was taken from single vehicle, a 1977 Ford Mustang, equipped with a catalytic converter. Irradiated and nonirradiate gas-phase emissions were used in exposures of the bacteria, Salmonella typhimurium. The mutagenic activities of extracts from the particulate phase were also measured with the standard plate incorporation assay. (In all experiments only direct-acting mutagenic compounds were measured). The gas-phase data showed increased activity for the irradiated emissions when compared to the nonirradiated mixture, which exhibited negligible activity with respect to the control values. The particulate phase for both the irradiated and nonirradiated mixtures showed negligible activity when results were compared to control values for both strains. However, the experimental conditions limited the amount of extractable mass which could be collected in the particulate phase. Under the experimental conditions of this study, the mutagenic density of the gas-phase component of the irradiated mixture contributed approximately two orders of magnitude more to the total TA100 activity than did the particulate phase. For TA98, the gas-phase component contributed approximately one order of magnitude more. The significance and limitations of the results are discussed.

Research Organization:
Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC (United States). Health Effects Research Lab.
OSTI ID:
6710430
Report Number(s):
PB-93-141273/XAB; EPA-600/J-92/428
Resource Relation:
Other Information: Pub. in Atmospheric Environment, Vol. 26A, No. 16, 3039-3053(Nov 1992). See also PB--91-228759
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English