Mutagenicity of emission and immission samples around industrial areas

Urban air particulates (suspended particles and settling dusts), as well as dusts emitted by a Söderberg aluminium production plant and a coal-burning power plant, in the industrial town of Ajka were analysed for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) content (liquid chromatography) and mutagenicity (Salmonella microsome test). The same parameters for air particulates from Pápa (a town of similar size without much heavy industry) were analysed and compared to those from Ajka. The dust content, PAH concentration and the mutagenic potency of the air in Ajka were higher than in Pápa. Mutagenicity of airborne particulates showed a clear seasonality with a winter maximum and a summer minimum in both towns. The mutagenic potency of air correlated well with the benzo[a]pyrene (BP) and PAH content in Ajka but not in Pápa. The amounts of extractable organic material and mutagenic potency, as calculated for unit quantity of airborne particulate matter, were higher in the Pápa samples. Similar differences between the two towns were observed in the case of deposited dust. As regards the emission dusts, the aluminium plant emissions are responsible for much more of the mutagenicity of the urban air than the power plant emission, which is the main component of air dust pollution in Ajka.