MUTAGENIC ACTIVITY OF LAKE WATER SAMPLES USED AS DRINKING-WATER RESOURCES IN NORTHERN ITALY

The three main lakes in Northern Italy (Como, Garda and Maggiore) were studied in order to investigate their potential mutagenic activity in relation to their present use as drinking water supplies. Lakewater s amples were collected by an automatic autosampler, concentrated in sit u with a XAD-2 filled column and tested with the Ames assay (TA98 and TA100 strains with and without S9 addition). The results of the Ames t est show that the highest water mutagenic activity is obtained when TA 98 strain with S9 mix is used, moreover they indicate higher mutagenic response in Come lakewaters than in the two other lake samples. The c hemical characterization of the water extracts were carried out quanti fying some agricultural and industrial organic micropollutants with GC -NPD techniques and identifying the main water chemical composition wi th GC-MS. The chemical analysis allowed the identification of some pol lutants that may be responsible for a fraction of the observed lake wa ter mutagenicity. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.