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Means to assess the toxicity of wastewaters are essential to implementing the Federal Clean Water Act. Health risk assessment based on single chemicals is limited by the number of chemicals that can be identified and to those chemicals for which toxicity data are available. Long-term whole animal tests on large numbers of wastewater samples are not practical. In this study, two short-term tests, the Salmonella mutagenicity assay and the Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell assay for mutagenicity and cytotoxicity, were evaluated as potentially useful biomonitors of wastewaters. Standard assay protocols were modified to allow testing of up to 2.5 and 3.4 ml of unconcentrated water in the bacterial and mammalian cell tests, respectively. Cytotoxicity and mutagenicity were detected in some unconcentrated wastewater samples using these modifications. Data on eight wastewater samples, representing five different sites, indicated that the Salmonella test is the more sensitive indicator of mutagenic activity in those samples, whereas the CHO test is a sensitive indicator of the presence of cytotoxic components. Wastewater concentrates, prepared by adsorption onto XAD-2 and "blue cotton," were compared in the two bioassays. In a single concentrate, the two short-term tests detected distinctly different mutagens. Advantages of using the CHO-AS52 cell line instead of the CHO-K1BH4 line for detecting wastewater mutagens were indicated. This study illustrates the complementary use of multiple bioassays and concentration methods to detect and characterize toxic components in wastewater.

Endemic goiter in iodide-sufficient areas of the United States and Colombia has been linked to watersheds rich in coal and shale, which several reports suggest are the source of water-borne goitrogens. In this report the potential antithyroid activities of aqueous coal and shale extracts and of compounds identified in aqueous effluents from coal conversion processes were assayed in thyroid peroxidase (TPO) and thyroid slice systems. Aqueous extracts of coal and black shale were potent inhibitors of TPO or 125I organification by thyroid slices. The most abundant water-soluble compounds derived from coal are dihydroxy-phenols, thiocyanate, disulfides, and hydroxypyridines. The dihydroxyphenols resorcinol, 2-methylresorcinol, and 5-methylresorcinol (orcinol) were 26.7, 22.5, and 7.2 times more potent, respectively, than the antithyroid drug 6-propylthiouracil (PTU). Other dihydroxyphenols and thiocyanate were less potent but comparable in activity to PTU. All dihydroxypyridines and 3-hydroxypyridine produced inhibitory effects comparable to PTU. None of the disulfides inhibited TPO. The antiperoxidase effects of combinations of two dihydroxyphenols or one dihydroxyphenol and SCN were additive, whereas the effects of a combination of four dihydroxyphenols at threshold inhibitory concentrations were synergistic, resulting in net effects equivalent to or greater than the sum of the individual effects. Thus, antithyroid effects may be greatly amplified by exposure to multiple coal-derived goitrogens and could be many times that produced by any one of the contributing pollutants. These results demonstrate that potent water-borne goitrogens are derived from coal and shale and that their contamination of water supplies could pose a serious threat of thyroid disorders.

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