Mutagenicity of burnt gun propellants.

The use of the Ames/Salmonella assay as a workplace monitoring method is a long-standing practice at LLNL. This practice has led to the discovery of very mutagenic soot in and around a 4 inch test gun. To the authors' knowledge this is the first finding of mutagenic components in the residue from gun propellants, although there have been numerous reports of mutagenic compounds associated with high explosives -- compounds of entirely different chemical composition (Won et al., 1976). In addition, Ase et al., 1985, analyzed the propellant combustion products of both a M16 rifle and a 105 mm caliber gun with HPLC and GC/MS methods, and found a number of PAHs with known toxicological effects. No biological analysis was done on the residues. Further investigation in our laboratory found that direct acting mutagens where produced upon open burning of the propellants. Small gauge firearms when tested also showed mutagenic residue. Preliminary efforts to identify the mutagenic components estimate that 2-3 compounds are responsible for the biological activity. The identity of these compounds is under investigation. 8 refs., 4 tabs.