MUTAGENIC POTENTIAL AS AN INTEGRAL INDEX OF SOIL POLLUTION BY OIL COMPONENTS

A study was made on soil samples contaminated by oil and oil-polluted waste waters of Tatarstan oil fields. The mutagenic ability of the sam ples was evaluated by the plate modification of the Ames test (Salmone lla/microsomes). Oil-polluted soils were shown to exhibit medium and w eak mutagenic potential. The mutagenic effect was increased by metabol ic activation by microsome fractions of rat liver and human placenta. The soil samples contaminated by waste waters of oil wells did not exh ibit mutagenic effect. No reliable correlation was revealed between mu tagenic effect and some chemical indices (heavy metal and 3,4-Benzpyre ne content in the samples).