CORRELATION BETWEEN METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS AND MUTAGENICITY OF AIRBORNE PARTICULATE SAMPLES IN A TROPICAL MONSOON CLIMATE AREA FROM KAOHSIUNG-CITY, TAIWAN

Kaohsiung is a city of 1.5 million located in the southern part of Tai wan. It has a serious air pollution problem mainly attributable to muc h industrial and commercial activity. In order to estimate the effects of traffic, season, and meteorological conditions on the mutagenicity of Kaohsiung City's urban ambient particulate matter, 624 airborne pa rticulate samples were collected on a weekly basis from 12 locations f or an entire year. The mutagenic potential of acetone extracts of air samples was evaluated by the Salmonella/microsomal test with S. typhim unium TA98 in the presence and absence of S9 mixtures. The air samples from November 1990 showed the highest direct and indirect mutagenicit y among the 12 months, whereas those from June and July 1991 had the l owest direct and indirect mutagenic activity, respectively. The mutage nicity showed a good correlation with amounts of the acetone extractab le matter of airborne particulates. The meteorological conditions, mon thly mean precipitation, and wind speed also showed a good corresponde nce with mutagenicity. Wind direction and temperature had a moderate r elationship. The major mutagenic fractions of air samples that had the highest mutagenic activity in a month were purified using Sephadex LH -20 column chromatography, and the contents of PAHs, 1-NP, and DNPs we re analyzed by HPLC. The characteristic concentration ratios of PAHs i ndicated that, for the main pollution sources of airborne particulates from Kaohsiung city, the mobile sources were more important than the stationary ones. The total amounts of 1-NP and DNPs in airborne partic ulates seemed to correspond to their mutagenicity. Although the total amounts of 1-NP and DNPs in the air samples correlated with their muta genicity, the major mutagenic chemicals in the airborne particulate sa mples from Kaohsiung City need further investigation. (C) 1994 Wiley-L iss, Inc.