ANALYSES OF CYTOGENETIC DAMAGE IN RODENTS FOLLOWING EXPOSURE TO SIMULATED GROUNDWATER CONTAMINATED WITH PESTICIDES AND A FERTILIZER

Male Fischer 344 rats and female B6C3F1 mice were each exposed through their drinking water to a mixture of pesticides and ammonium nitrate that simulated contaminated groundwater in California (California Chemical Mixture [CCM]). Exposures were for 71 or 91 days, respectively. In addition, B6C3F1 female mice were exposed for 91 days to another pesticide and ammonium nitrate mixture (Iowa Chemical Mixture [ICM]) through their drinking water. The spleens were removed from the animals, and the splenocytes were cultured for analyses of sister-chromatid exchange (SCE), chromosome aberrations (CA), and micronuclei (MN) in cytochalasin B-induced binucleate cells. A concentration-related increase in SCEs was found in the splenocytes of the rat at the 1 x , 10 x and 100 x levels of the CCM and at the 100 x concentration of the CCM in the mouse. There were no other consistent cytogenetic effects observed with the CCM, and no statistically significant cytogenetic damage was observed in mice exposed to the ICM. Evidence from the literature is discussed in order to infer which chemical or chemicals in the CCM might be responsible for the observed SCE response.