Abstract
There are many factors such as airtighteness and high density of merchandises or passengers that contaminate indoor air in underground commercial floor. So it is very important to know air quality and quantity of contamination in underground market increasing in number lately. It was from these viewpoints that gaseous pollutants, dusts and mutagenicity of organic compounds extracted from dusts in an underground market were investigatd. Organic ompounds (tar) were extracted by Soxhlet extractor with benzene as a solvent. Mutagenicities of these extracts were evaluated by the preincubation method using Salmonella typhimurium TA 100 and TA 98 strains with and without S9mix. The results obtained were as follows: It seemed to be under the influence of outdoor air that the concentrations of $CO, CO_2, NO, NO_2$ and dusts were higher in winter than summer. The concentration of $CO_2$ was higher in indoor than outdoor, but the concentration of NOx was similar in both sampling areas. Metal contents in dusts attached to the ventilation ducts were as follows showing in order of high concentration : Fe (9000-22000ppm), Zn(1200-2300ppm) and Pb (280-590ppm). The contents of tar were 6-33% of dusts, and higher than those from dusts collected by high volume air sampler. The extracts from dusts attached to the inlet duct exhibited lower mutagenicity than those from dusts attached to the outlet duct. This finding seemed to suggest that mutagenic substances were in creasing in underground. There was no seasonal difference of mutagenicity toward TA 98. Toward TA 100 in the presence of S9mix, the mutagenicity was about 3 fold higher in winter than summer. The mutagenicities of tar extracted from dusts collected by high volume air sampler were different from those attached to the ventilation ducts. The former showed 2-3 fold higher mutagenicity than the latter toward TA 100. However no difference showed between the former and the latter toward TA 98 in the absence of S9mix, but the former was 4-5 fold higher than the latter in the presence of S9mix.