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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Bioassays for estimating health hazards of new energy technologies

Journal Article · · Energy Technol. Rev.; (United States)
OSTI ID:5988320

The Lawrence Livermore Laboratory is developing a number of bioassays to determine whether the effluents of in situ shale-oil and coal-gas recovery processes contain genetic toxicants - substances that may modify the genetic material of cells and thereby cause mutations leading to cancer. The procedure is to obtain water from wells near the in situ experiments, concentrate it, fractionate it into chemical classes, and test each fraction with a series of bioassays. In this series of tests, bacteria are used to screen the substances for mutagenic activity, animal cell-cultures to confirm the activity, and whole animals to approximate mutagenic activity in humans. Results to date indicate that these bioassays are sensitive enough to detect small amounts of potentially hazardous substances in dilute effluents.

OSTI ID:
5988320
Journal Information:
Energy Technol. Rev.; (United States), Journal Name: Energy Technol. Rev.; (United States); ISSN ETERD
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English