THE EFFECT OF FUEL COMPOSITION ON THE MUTAGENICITY OF DIESEL-ENGINE EXHAUST

Citation
R. Crebelli et al., THE EFFECT OF FUEL COMPOSITION ON THE MUTAGENICITY OF DIESEL-ENGINE EXHAUST, Mutation research. Mutation research letters, 346(3), 1995, pp. 167-172
Citations number
24
ISSN journal
01657992
Volume
346
Issue
3
Year of publication
1995
Pages
167 - 172
Database
ISI
SICI code
0165-7992(1995)346:3<167:TEOFCO>2.0.ZU;2-9
Abstract
The effect of fuel composition on the mutagenicity of diesel engine em ission was investigated. To this end, a fuel matrix comprising fuels w ith different contents of aromatic and naphthenic compounds was used. Extracts of the organic phase of raw exhausts obtained with different fuels were tested for mutagenicity in bacterial reversion assays. The results obtained demonstrate that the mutagenicity of diesel exhaust i s largely dependent on the aromatic content of the fuel. In fact, muta genicity was greatly reduced when the aromatic content of the fuel was lowered by hydrogen treatment. Conversely, mutagenicity was enhanced when the fuel was enriched with fractions of di- or triaromatic compou nds. The addition of di- and trinaphthenic compounds only produced bor derline mutagenicity. No clear relationship was observed between sulfu r content of the fuel and mutagenicity of the exhaust. Assays in bacte rial strains with different sensitivity to nitroaromatic compounds sug gest a low contribution of the highly mutagenic dinitropyrenes to the responses observed, and a relatively greater contribution of l-nitropy rene or other nitroaromatics processed by the same bacterial nitroredu ctase.