Chemical Mutagens: Environmental Effects on Biological Systems brings together relevant facts about synthetic and naturally occurring mutagenic chemicals. Organized into two parts, this book begins with a simple discussion on the modern concepts of the gene at the molecular and biochemical levels. The first part also looks into the different types of mutations and how they form, as well as the biological systems used for their detection. The second part deals with the individual chemical mutagens of environmental significance, including their manufacture, occurrence, method of detection, degradation, and metabolism. It also discusses the types of mutation chemical mutagens induce in the various test systems that have been utilized. This book will serve as single source material for its utility to students, investigators, and those involved with public health.

Mutagenicity: Assays and Applications presents an extensive examination of the detection, assessment and future of mutagenicity, particularly as it concerns human health and the environment. Chapters focused on specific types of mutagens or testing methods for their detection collectively explore the current state of human and environmental mutagenesis, future perspectives and regulatory needs. The test procedures for measuring mutagenicity, their advantages and limitations are described with practical and procedural detail, along with their presentation and data processing aspects. It is an essential reference covering the breadth and depth of the field of mutagenicity studies and regulation. By providing both important introductory material and practical assays and applications, this book is useful to graduate students, academic and industry researchers and regulators at various stages of their careers, leading to improved risk assessment and regulation. Presents an up-to-date and in-depth review of the current state of mutagenesis research Draws upon the combined experience and expertise of an international group of highly respected editors and chapter authors Provides an introduction to the concept of mutagenesis with particular consideration given to novel chemicals and materials

The best protection against environmental mutagens is to identify them before they ever come into general use. But it is always possible that some substance will escape detection and affect a large number of persons without this being realized until later generations. This article considers ways in which such a genetic emergency might be promptly detected. A mutation-detecting system should be relevant in that it tests for effects that are as closely related as possible to those that are feared. It should be sensitive enough to detect a moderate increase in mutation rate, able to discover the increase promptly before more damage is done, responsive to various kinds of mutational events, and designed in such a way as to maxi mize the probability that the Gause of an increase can be found. Methods based on germinal mutation necessarily involve enormous numbers of persons and tests. On the other hand, with somatic mutations the individual cell becomes the unit of measurement rather than the in dividual person. For this reason, I think that somatic tests are preferable to germinal tests, despite the fact that it is germinal mutations which are feared.

As editor I want especially to thank Dr. Ernst Freese for helpful co operation in preparing these volumes, and to express my appreclatlOn to Drs. Kurt Hirschhorn and Marvin Legator, the other members of the editorial board. Alexander Hollaender January 1971 Preface The purpose of these volumes is to encourage the development and ap plication of testing and monitoring procedures to avert significant human exposure to mutagenic agents. The need for protection against exposure to possibly mutagenic chemicals is only now coming to be generally realized. The recently issued Report of the Secretary's Commission on Pesticides and Their Possible Effects on Health (the Mrak Report-U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, December 1969) has made an important start. Its Panel on Mutagenicity recommends that all currently used pesticides be tested for mutagenicity in several recently developed and relatively simple systems. Whether recommendations such as these are actually put into effect will depend on convincing government, industry, and the public that the problem is important, that the proposed tests would be effective, and that they can be conducted at a cost that is not prohibitive. Why is it important to screen environmental agents for mutagenic activity? To those who will read this book, the answer is self-evident. The sine qua non of all that we value and all that we are is our genetic heritage.

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The ready acceptance and wide demand for copies of the first two volumes of Chemical Mutagens: Principles and Methods Jar Their Detection have demon strated the need for wider dissemination of information on this timely and urgent subject. Therefore, it was imperative that a third volume be prepared to include more detailed discussions on techniques of some of the methods that were presented from a theoretical point of view in the first two volumes, and to update this rapidly expanding field with current findings and the new developments that have taken place in the past three years. Also included is a special chapter by Dr. Charlotte Auerbach giving the historical background of the discovery of chemical mutagenesis. Methods for recognizing mutagenic compounds in vitro are a necessary preliminary step toward arriving at satisfactory solutions for recognizing significant mutation rates in man, which must be done before our test tube methods of detection can be considered reliable. Two chapters in this volume make important contributions to this problem. Due to the increasing activity in efforts to perfect techniques for detecting chemical mutagens and their effects on man, it is planned to continue this series of volumes as necessary to keep abreast of current findings.