EVALUATION OF GENOTOXICITY OF BROMATE ION PRODUCED DURING OZONATION

Bromate ion formation during ozonation processes in water works is reg arded as an issue of great interest because of its potential for carci nogenicity. In this research, genotoxicity of bromate ion was investig ated by the umu- test using Salmonella typhimurium TA1535/pSK1002. The time-course study showed that the umuC gene related to error-prone re pair of damaged DNA was induced by bromate ion after 12 hours exposure of the test strain. However, a further study revealed that this induc tion was inactivated by metabolism with rat liver microsome when broma te ion concentration was less than 0.88 mg BrO3-/mg as protein of the S9 fraction. This inactivation was assumed to depend on -SH compounds in liver microsome.