Toxicity studies of mild gasification products

The objectives of this project are: (1) to perform mutagenicity studies with the Ames Salmonella/microsomal assay system on coal liquids produced by mild gasification from different coals and/or processing conditions, (2) to determine whether coal liquids which are mutagenic to bacteria are also genotoxic to mammalian cells, (3) to establish correlations between mutagenicity, aromaticity, and boiling point range of coal liquids, and (4) to identify the chemical classes which are likely to be responsible for the mutagenic activity of gasification products. Four of the seven samples tested so far failed to demonstrate any mutagenic activity under any conditions tested. Those samples were SHELL[number sign]830331, MG-122IBP-420[degree]F, MG-122 420--720[degree]F, and MG-122 720[degree]F+. Table 1 summarizes the results from all samples tested in DMSO and Tween 80. When solvated in DMSO, MG-119 and MG-120 composite materials displayed slight, but ultimately insignificant, genotoxic activity on TA98 and TA1OO in the presence of S9. When Tween 80 was used as the solvent, MG-119 and MG-120 displayed slight, but significant, geno-toxic activity on TA98 with S9 (Figure 4). CTC[number sign]11 in DMSO displayed significant genotoxic activity on both TA98 and TA1OO with and without S9. The activity was higher on TA98 than TA100, and higher with S9 than without, primarily indicating the presence of indirect-acting frameshift mutagen. The results of the testing on CTC[number sign]11 were similar for both solvents, DMSO and Tween 80 (Table 2)