Abstract
The mutagenicity of the river water of Nakdong river estuary was determined by Ames test using the blue rayon suspension method. Samples were collected from 10 sites in the estuary once in each season of 1998. The samples collected from the sites where industrial waste discharge on May were mutagenic, but the other samples were not mutagenic. The sample collected from the site 1 located near the industrial area (Hadan-dong) were highly mutagenic in the TA98 with (+S9) and without (-S9) mix as well as in the TA100 with (+S9) and without (-S9) S9 mix, suggesting that the river water of this site is polluted by direct and indirect mutagens of frame-shift type as well as direct and indirect mutagens of base-replacement type. The positive mutagenicity, although relatively low, was also detected in TA98 with (+S9) and without (-S9) S9 mix in the extract of the site 4 near the industrial area(Jangrim-dong), suggesting that the primary mutation type is frame-shift. The negative mutagenicity from July to December at the sites (1-4) near the industrial area seems to be affected by the low economic growth rate in 1998 in Korea. On the other hand, the negative mutagenicity in all extracts collected from the sites 5-10 near the residential area where living sewage discharge, suggests that the river water was not polluted by mutagens.
