Mutagenicity of Emissions from the Simulated Open Burning of Scrap Rubber Tires.

摘要

The report describes a follow-up to a small-scale combustion study to collect, identify, and quantify products emitted during the simulated open combustion of scrap tires. The initial study found that total estimated emissions of semi-volatile organics ranged from 10 to 50 g/kg of tire material burned. Mono- and poly-aromatic hydrocarbons were the predominant emission products identified. The follow-up study subjected the extracts from the initial study to bioassay-directed fractionation to determine mutagenic potencies of the extracts. The results from the bioassay studies were then compared to data from other conventional combustion sources to indicate the relative potencies of the emissions from uncontrolled burning of tires. The fractionated extracts were then subjected to further gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy (GC/MS) analysis to determine the classes of compounds giving the highest mutagenic potencies. In addition, a sample from an actual tire burn was subjected to the same bioassay analyses to determine the relevance of the initial small-scale simulations to actual field samples from a full-scale tire fire.