ABSTRACT
Air pollution is a very complex mixture of gases and particles with condensed organic matter. So far, >500 compounds in ambient air have been identified as mutagenic (Claxton et al. 2004). Coke plants, gas works, steelworks, petroleum refineries, plants using fossil fuels, coal tar, asphalt, as well as chemical works are among substantial sources of air pollutant emission. Household coal-fired stoves and road transport also make considerable contributions to total emissions (De Kok et al. 2006). The mutagenic and carcinogenic effects of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) are widely known. PAH air concentration results from numerous factors, such as: quantity of particulate fall-out generated by emissions from industrial plants, heating techniques, intensity of road transport, implemented town planning solutions that would facilitate or impede air change, meteorological and climatic conditions (Nisbet & LaGoy 1992). A major source of PAH content in the atmosphere is from incomplete combustion of organic compounds. Fuel combustion and chemical reactions that proceed in atmospheric air and involve organic pollutants also lead to formation of other genotoxic compounds: polar aromatic compounds, heterocyclic compounds and phenols. Nitroand amino-PAH derivatives are also considered highly mutagenic compounds (Bamford et al. 2003).
