[Cytotoxicity and genotoxicity of drinking water of two networks supplied by surface water].

Objective: Evaluation of cytotoxic and genotoxic load of drinking water in relationship to the source of supplies, the disinfection process, and the piping system.

Setting: Two treatment/distribution networks of drinking water, the first (#1) located near the source, the second (#2) located near the mouth of a river supplying the plants.

Design: Water samples were collected before (F) and after (A) the disinfection process and in two points (R1 and R2) of the piping system.

A battery of in vivo and in vitro tests useful for genotoxic pollutant detection in surface waters.

Since the 1980s, stricter water quality regulations have been promulgated in many countries throughout the world. We discuss the application of a battery of both in vivo and in vitro genotoxicity tests on lake water as a tool for a more complete assessment of surface water quality. The lake water concentrated by adsorption on C18 silica cartridges were used for the following in vitro biological assays: gene conversion, point mutation, mitochondrial DNA mutability assays on the diploid Saccharomyces cerevisiae D7 strain, with or without endogenous P450 complex induction; DNA damage on fresh human leukocytes by the comet.

Genotoxicity and cytotoxicity assessment in lake drinking water produced in a treatment plant.

Chemical analyses and short-term mutagenicity bioassays have revealed the presence of genotoxic disinfection by-products in drinking water. In this study, the influence of the different steps of surface water treatment on drinking water mutagen content was evaluated. Four different samples were collected at a full-scale treatment plant: raw lake water (A), water after pre-disinfection with chlorine dioxide and coagulation (B), water after pre-disinfection, coagulation and granular activated carbon filtration (C) and tap water after post-disinfection with chlorine dioxide just before its distribution (D).

Comet and micronucleus assays in zebra mussel cells for genotoxicity assessment of surface drinking water treated with three different disinfectants.

The aim of this research was to study the influence of classic (sodium hypochlorite and chlorine dioxide) and alternative (peracetic acid [PAA]) disinfectants on the formation of mutagens in surface waters used for human consumption. For this proposal, in vivo genotoxicity tests (Comet and micronucleus assay) were performed in an experimental pilot plant set up near Lake Trasimeno (Central Italy). The effects were detected in different tissues (haemocytes for the Comet assay and gills for the micronucleus test [MN]) of Dreissena polymorpha exposed in experimental basins supplied with lake water with/without the different disinfectants.

Sodium hypochlorite-, chlorine dioxide- and peracetic acid-induced genotoxicity detected by the Comet assay and Saccharomyces cerevisiae D7 tests.

Mutagenicity of drinking water is due not only to industrial, agricultural and urban pollution but also to chlorine disinfection by-products. Furthermore, residual disinfection is used to provide a partial safeguard against low level contamination and bacterial re-growth within the distribution system. The aims of this study were to further evaluate the genotoxic potential of the world wide used disinfectants sodium hypochlorite and chlorine dioxide in human leukocytes by the Comet assay and in Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain D7 (mitotic gene conversion, point mutation and mitochondrial DNA mutability, with and without endogenous metabolic activation) and to compare their effects with those of peracetic acid, proposed as an alternative disinfectant.