The effect of pentachlorophenol and its metabolite tetrachlorohydroquinone on cell growth and the induction of DNA damage in Chinese hamster ovary cells.

It is shown that p-tetrachlorohydroquinone (TCH), the metabolite of the environmental chemical pentachlorophenol (PCP), is more toxic to cultured CHO cells than PCP, and that it causes DNA single-strand breaks and/or alkali-labile sites at concentrations of 2-10 microgram/ml as demonstrated by the alkaline elution technique.