[Chemical and biological characterization of electrofilter dust from a waste incinerating plant. 2. Mutagenic activity of organic extracts and their subfractions and determination of the PAH content].

In a recent study, we showed that the Soxhlet extraction with toluene and pretreatment with diluted HCl is the best suitable method to remove organic compounds from particles collected by electrostatic precipitation in municipal waste incinerators. In the present paper, the mutagenic activity of the extracts from particulate samples were studied, using strain TA 100 as a tester strain. A small if any mutagenic activity was observed from most of the samples. The highest mutagenic effects were observed at different extract concentrations and without metabolic activation. A fractionation technique was developed and subfractions (dichlormethane and dichlormethane/methanol) were tested for their mutagenic potential and PAH-content. Small amounts of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) were found, which were concentrated to an extent of 90% on the dichlormethane fraction. The results showed a tendency of reactivity to concentrate in the polar fraction.