Chemical and biological characterization of emissions from a fireperson training facility.

Firefighters are routinely exposed to a wide variety of combustion products. To examine health-related aspects of their exposure to combustion products from specific sources, samples from oil fire plumes at a fireperson training facility were collected for chemical characterization of organic compounds and for Ames microbial mutagenesis biological testing. Chemical characterization of particulate and vapor-phase samples demonstrated the existence of a complex mixture of organics containing a series of alkanes, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons and other compounds. The Ames bioassay showed an average mutagenic response of 0.4 rev/microgram with most of the activity observed in strain TA98 with metabolic activation.