MUTAGENIC ACTIVITY OF IRRADIATED TOLUENE/NO//x/H//2O AIR MIXTURES.

This work attempted to determine if the products of the irradiation of a mixture of toluene/NO//x/H//2O/air may be mutagenic. The irradiation was conducted in a 22. 7-m**3 Teflon smog chamber, which was operated in a flow mode where the reaction mixture is continuously added to and removed from the chamber at flow rates in the range 2. 0 - 5. 0 cfm. In this way the product distrubution can be maintained at a steady state corresponding to an extent of reaction varying between approx. 3-7 hrs. The effluent stream from the reaction chamber was then fed to filtered and an unfiltered 200-1 biochambers containing test plates of Salmonella typhimurium strains TA100 and TA98. The inlet reactant stream and clean air stream are both fed to individual biochambers as controls. Mutations were detected as the number of revertant colonies growing in the biotesting medium.