Detection of benzo(a)pyrene and mutagenicity in water of Lake Baikal (Russia) and rivers in Okayama (Japan) using the blue rayon method: A simplified handling and transportation of samples from remote sites

Blue rayon, an adsorbent selective to compounds having three or more fused rings, for detecting benzo(a)pyrene and measuring mutagenicity was used in Lake Baikal (Russia), Asahi River, Sasagase River, and Lake Kojima (Okayama, Japan). One gram of blue rayon was immersed in 1 L of water in a bottle, and manually shaken for 30 min. The blue rayon was recovered and transported to the laboratory where the analyses for benzo(a)pyrene and the mutagenicity assay were performed. The recovered benzo(a)pyrene from the water sample ranged from 0.13 to 0.65 ng/L for Lake Baikal and from 0.13 to 1.41 ng/L for the rivers and the lake in Okayama. Six samples out of 11 from Lake Baikal showed positive but weak mutagenicity. No mutagenicity was found in the samples from the rivers and the lake in Okayama. The present method allows easy sampling at remote sites because there is no need for transporting voluminous water samples to the place where analysis is performed.