CORRELATION BETWEEN ONLINE PAH DETECTION IN AIRBORNE PARTICLE SAMPLESAND THEIR BACTERIAL GENOTOXICITY

The photoelectric aerosol sensor (PAS) is a technique suitable for on- line monitoring of particle-bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PP AHs). Although this is a very fast and inexpensive technique, it does not measure individual PAH species but gives a measure of the total am ount of PPAHs. Because of the suitability of this sensor for air-pollu tion screening, it is desirable to know whether a correlation exists b etween the PPAHs detected with this method and the biological relevanc e of the respective particle samples. To test the DNA damaging potenti al of the organic fraction of collected particles, the umuC test with Salmonella typhimurium TA1535/pSK1002 was used. The primary source for particle sampling was a stationary diesel engine, but samples from a parking garage and two locations in the city of Zurich have also been included. The total mass of PPAHs as determined by the PAS was plotted against the induced genotoxicity. This resulted in a linear correlati on (r(2) = 0.82), indicating that the PAS detects biologically relevan t PPAHs. (C) 1998 Academic Press.