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Mutagenesis vol. 19 no. 2 pp. 157-162, March 2004
© 2004 UK Environmental Mutagen Society/Oxford University Press

Sodium hypochlorite-, chlorine dioxide- and peracetic acid-induced genotoxicity detected by the Comet assay and Saccharomyces cerevisiae D7 tests

Annamaria Buschini, Pamela Carboni, Mariangela Furlini, Paola Poli1 and Carlo Rossi

Dipartimento di Genetica Antropologia Evoluzione, Università di Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze 11A, 43100 Parma, Italy

Mutagenicity of drinking water is due not only to industrial, agricultural and urban pollution but also to chlorine disinfection by-products. Furthermore, residual disinfection is used to provide a partial safeguard against low level contamination and bacterial re-growth within the distribution system. The aims of this study were to further evaluate the genotoxic potential of the world wide used disinfectants sodium hypochlorite and chlorine dioxide in human leukocytes by the Comet assay and in Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain D7 (mitotic gene conversion, point mutation and mitochondrial DNA mutability, with and without endogenous metabolic activation) and to compare their effects with those of peracetic acid, proposed as an alternative disinfectant. All three disinfectants are weakly genotoxic in human leukocytes (lowest effective dose 0.2 p.p.m. for chlorine dioxide, 0.5 p.p.m. for sodium hypochlorite and peracetic acid). The results in S.cerevisiae show a genotoxic response on the end-points considered with an effect only at doses higher (5- to 10-fold) than the concentration normally used for water disinfection; sodium hypochlorite and peracetic acid are able to induce genotoxic effects without endogenous metabolic activation (in stationary phase cells) whereas chlorine dioxide is effective in growing cells. The Comet assay was more sensitive than the yeast tests, with effective doses in the range normally used for water disinfection processes. The biological effectiveness of the three disinfectants on S.cerevisiae proved to be strictly dependent on cell-specific physiological/biochemical conditions. All the compounds appear to act on the DNA and peracetic acid shows effectiveness similar to sodium hypochlorite and chlorine dioxide.

1Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: +39 0521 905608; Fax: +39 0521 905604; Email: mutgen{at}unipr.it

Received on September 22, 2003; revised and accepted on November 27, 2003


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