Identification of Mutagenic Aromatic Amines in River Samples with Industrial Wastewater Impact

Aromatic amines are one of the most important classes of compounds contributing to surface water mutagenicity due to their widespread occurrence as precursors and transformation products of dyes, pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and other compound classes. In this study, we implemented a workflow including novel analytical and data evaluation methods aiming to identify aromatic amines in six mutagenic wastewater effluents from a chemical-industrial area in Germany, collected by the passive sampler Blue Rayon. We identified 14 amines including the two potent mutagenic aromatic amines 2,3- and 2,8-phenazinediamine, which were reported for the first time as environmental contaminants. These two isomers accounted between 4.2 and 86% of the mutagenicity of the blue rayon extracts and may be byproducts of dye production at the studied site.