Ozonation of cytostatics in water medium. Nitrogen bases.

Wastewaters from pharmaceutical manufacturers of cytostatic drugs are, in p rinciple, polluted with them. These compounds can result, under certain cir cumstances, in toxic and even carcinogenic products. The problem of removin g such compounds from water has not yet been completely solved. This work comprises the ozone inactivation of 5-fluorouracil, cytarabine, a zathioprine and methotrexate, four nitrogen bases with cytostatic propertie s, dissolved in water. Results show that these compounds can be inactivated by ozonation. The composition of the reaction mixture was followed by HPLC and at the end of the reaction the Ames test performed showed that the rea ction products were nonmutagenic.