Mutagenicity Evaluation Caused By Heavy Metals Found In Cauca River Water In The City Of Cali, Colombia

The mutagenicity of the Cauca River water due to the presence of heavy metals was evaluated in the urban area of the city of Santiago de Cali, from samples taken during the rainy and dry season of 2013. The metals were extracted from water samples using the resin Amberlite XAD-16. The concentrations of heavy metals were measured by atomic absorption and mutagenicity was evaluated by the Ames test, using the TA98 and TA100 strains of Salmonella typhimurium with and without the S9 enzymatic activator. The results showed mutagenicity indices (MI > 2.0) in three of the five points evaluated: El Hormiguero Bridge (MI = 3.6), the mouth of southern collector channel (MI = 2.9) and the mouth of Cali River (MI = 2.7), all with strain TA98 without S9. These sampling points in turn presented the highest total concentrations of heavy metals in the extracts. The determination and analysis of spatio-temporal variation of the mutagenic effects obtained was done by conducting multifactorial variance analysis of MI, finding that the effect of sampling season contributes significantly to the variability of MI unlike the sampling points.