Genotoxicity Of Water Polution Of Taihu Lake, China

Water, sediment and biota make up of the major parts of aquatic ecosystem in the lake. Water pollution directly affects the constitutes and vigority of biota. The pollutants and organism remains eventually convert into sediment on the lake bottom by a series of eco-chemical process, such as adsorption, sedimentation and diffusion. The pollutants of sediments could resuspend into water by disturbing,either by natural force or by human activity, that results in secondary pollution of the water. Since the Taihu Lake is a typical shallow big lake, the ecological quality assessment and evaluation on pollution should be carried out on above mentioned three major components in lake ecosystem synchronously. The paper deals with the genetic toxicological investigation on the genotoxic pollution of the surface water, sediments and blue-green algae which is, momentarily, at the focus of public concern.Genotoxic activity of the organic pollutants in the surface water in Taihu Lake was monitored in different seasons and different positions in the lake. The samples collected from estuaries of two rivers which flow into the lake or from alongshore area showed strong mutagenicity, while the samples from the lake center or from less polluted surface proved to be mutagenic negative. The results suggested the possible implication of human activity on water pollution in the lake. The samples collected in the different seasons but from the same set of sampling points have displayed different mutagenicity. Winter and spring samples showed stronger mutagenicity than that collected during summer and autumn season. It postulated that certain kind of meteorological and hydrological factors might play a role on the distribution and diffusion of the pollutants over the lake. Some of the sediment samples from a few of polluted areas were screened for mutagenicity. The results obtained showed that mutagenicity pollution situation in most sediment samples, not all, correlated with that of water samples. Genotoxicity of a set of crude extracts of blue algae, Microcystis aeruginosa , was performed. The blue algae water bloom in fresh water ecosystem associated with water body eutrophication. . Recently, the public concern was largely concentrated on its ecological and public health impact. The data obtained in this study provided a clear information that Microcystis aeruginosa extracts from Taihu Lake is genotoxic free. However, other possible public health risks of the water blooms should be put under a close monitoring.Shanghai is a part of the Taihu Lake basin, The major water system within its administrative boundary stems from Taihu Lake and provides 80 percent of the municipal drinking water source. Water pollution in Taihu Lake largely affects the drinking water quality in this city. Our data showed the tap water samples from the source water which is from Taihu Lake have been detected to be stronger mutagenic toxic than that from Yangtze River. Tap water samples in city south and city middledisplayed stronger mutation potentials compared with their corresponding source water samples. The custom boiling procedure intensified the mutagenic potential in drinking water. Some technical options for the remission of mutagenic pollution situation of municipal drinking water in city Shanghai was proposed.