Genotoxicological research on the waste mine drainage water

The waste acid-mine drainage water obtained from a polluted mining area in the Slovak Republic contains a high load of toxic metals which significantly exceeds the Slovak Limits for Drinking Water. Elements were determined by atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) and by using AAS with the hydride generation technique. Genotoxic evaluation revealed that, in the modified preincubation Salmonella typhimurium/microsome mutagenicity assay, the acid-mine drainage water was mutagenic in the strain TA97 in the absence and in the presence of S9 mix, whereas in the strain TA102 it was mutagenic only in the presence of mammalian activation. The simultaneous test of phytotoxicity and clastogenicity in Vicia sativa L. proved the high phytotoxic and clastogenic effects of the tested waste mine drainage water. Due to the high concentrations of toxic elements detected in the mutagenic waste acid-mine drainage water we can conclude that toxic metals might be responsible for the genotoxic potential of the waste drainage. However, we do not entirely exclude an acidic environment mediation.