Effects of pH and temperature on the degradation of chloroacetones that are mutagenic

Recently, several reports on the mutagenicity of the mill effluents from paper and pulp industries have been published. The compounds were isolated and identified as mutagens from the spent chlorination liquors at the bleaching stage in the industries. Some of them might be released through a drainage-pipe into the river and/or the coastal sea water. But the fate of these compounds in the aquatic environment is little known in the literature. In this paper, the authors report the degradation efficiency of three mutagenic chloroacetones: 1,3-dichloroacetone, pentachloroacetone and hexachloroacetone, in a buffer solution. They also describe their degradation efficiency in the environmental waters at different pH and temperatures with and without sun-light.