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EFFECT OF THE DECHLORINATING AGENT, ASCORBIC ACID, ON THE MUTAGENICITY OF CHLORINATED WATER SAMPLES
Citation:
Schenck*, K M., T F. Speth*, AND M Sivaganesan. EFFECT OF THE DECHLORINATING AGENT, ASCORBIC ACID, ON THE MUTAGENICITY OF CHLORINATED WATER SAMPLES. Presented at Environmental Mutagen Society, San Diego, CA, 3/16-21/2001.
Description:
XAD resin adsorption has been widely used to concentrate the organic compounds present in chlorinated drinking waters prior to mutagenicity testing. Previous work has shown that mutagenic artifcats can arise due to the reaction of residual chlorine with the resins. Althrough the levels of mutagenic artifacts produced are minimal compared to the levels of mutagenicity observed in the drinking waters, at chlorine residuals typically found in the US, they are nonetheless undesirable. The use of common dechlorinating agents, such as sodium sulfite or sodium thiosulfate, has been shown to reduce the levels of mutagenicity present in drinking waters. Consequently, we have attempted to find a dechlorianting agent which will react rapidly with residual chlorine but not affect the levels of mutagenicity observed in drinking waters. previous results using chlorinated humic acid solutions showed that ascorbic acid did not reduce the observed mutagenicity of the solutions, when tested directly or as an organic extract in the Ames assay. Ascorbic acid was then evaluated using a chlorinated lake water, concentrated by XAD adsorption prior to testing. Unexpectedly, the level of mutagenicity in the sample with ascorbic acid was significantly less than the chlorinated lake water. Again, the dechlorinated sample was significantly less than the tap water. Any mutagenicity due to the presence of a chlorine residual during XAD concentration was less than twice background, based on a chlorinated distilled water control. This dat suggests that ascorbic acid may not be a suitable dechlorinating agent for mutagenicity studies of chlorinated water samples requiring concentration on XAD resins.