Evaluation of cyto- and genotoxic effects of Class B firefighting foam products: Tridol-S 3% AFFF and Tridol-S 6% AFFF to Allium cepa

Abstract Worldwide a multitude of firefighting compounds are currently used for the mitigation and protection of man-made structures and forests alike from fire damages. Among the class of firefighting agents, Class B firefighting foams are generally used to control fires generated from hydrocarbon liquids. In the present study, we assessed the cyto- and genotoxicity of two widely used class B firefighting foam concentrates, Tridol-S 3% and Tridol-S 6% to Allium cepa through chromosomal aberration and comet assay using root meristem cells. A. cepa root tips were exposed to Tridol-S 3% and Tridol-S 6% with six different concentrations (0%, 0.005%, 0.01%, 0.02%, 0.03%, 0.04% and 0.05%) for 24 h. Cytogenetic effect endpoints such as mitotic index, and chromosomal aberrations were observed. Chromosomal aberrations in the control (untreated onion root tips) was negligible with the mitotic index (MI) value of 79.6%, while the MI significantly decreased in all the test concentrations of firefighting compounds. Genotoxicity assessment through comet assay also revealed that both the products were genotoxic with a significant increase in per cent tail DNA and olive tail moment. Among the test compounds, Tridol-S 3% was more toxic than Tridol-S 6%. To our knowledge, this is the first study on the cyto- and genotoxic effects of class B firefighting foams to A . cepa root meristem cells. This study also suggests that the toxicological studies using A . cepa root meristem cells can be employed for evaluating the toxicological impacts of firefighting foams in the environment.