Abstract |
The paper demonstrates that integrated chemical and bacterial mutagenicity information can be used to identify environmental tobacco smoke genotoxicants, monitor human exposure, and make comparative assessments. Approximately one-third of the environmental tobacco smoke constituents for which there is quantitative analytical chemistry information also have associated genotoxicity information. For example, 11 of the quantitated compounds are animal carcinogens. Work presented in this paper demonstrates that both the nonparticle-bound semi-volatile and the particulate-bound organic material contain bacterial mutagens. These environmental tobacco smoke organics give an equivalent of about 86,000 revertants per cigarette. In addition, this article summarizes efforts to estimate environmental tobacco smoke bacterial mutagenicity, to use bacterial tests for the monitoring of environmental tobacco smoke-impacted indoor environments, and to use bacterial assays for the direct monitoring of human exposure. (Copyright (c) 1989 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. (Biomedical Division).) |