Contribution of chlorination to the mutagenic activity of drinking water extracts in Salmonella and Chinese hamster ovary cells.

The production of chlorinated by-products through chlorine disinfection of drinking water has been well documented. Natural organic precursors for these chemicals include fulvic and humic acids, the chlorination of which leads to the production of mutagenic compounds. Comparisons of extracts of raw versus treated waters have confirmed that clorination during water treatment produces mutagenic activity in the Salmonella (Ames) test. Present work on XAD-2 extracts of raw and chlorinated water from six municipalities in the Great Lakes region of Canada has involved a battery of mutagenicity assays for various genetic endpoints: the Salmonella test, the sister-chromatid exchange (SCE), and the micronucleus (MN) induction in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. All extracts of treated (chlorinated), but none of untreated, water were mutagenic in the Salmonella assay. On the other hand, extracts of both treated and untreated water samples showed activity in the SCE and MN assays, but no consistent pattern of response with regard to treatment (chlorination) was evident. These data show that chlorination contributes mutagens to drinking water and suggest that mammalian in vitro assays may be more sensitive for detecting mutagenicity in water samples than the Salmonella test.