Five nitro musk compounds are widely used as fragrance ingredients in perfumes, lotions and detergents; as food additives in cigarettes and fish baits, and in such technical products as herbicide formulations and explosives. Several studies identified nitro musk compounds in aquatic environment samples, human milk and fat samples as highly lipophilic and persistent bioaccumulating environmental pollutants. To examine the compounds for genotoxic activity, musk xylene (1-tert.-butyl-3,5-dimethyl-2,4,6-tirnitrobenze), musk ketone (4-tert.-butyl-3,5-dinitro-2,6-dimethylacetophenone), musk ambrette (1-tert.-butyl-4-methyl-t-methoxy-3,5-dinitrobenzene, musk moskene (1,1,3,3,5-pentamethyl-4,6-di-nitroindane) and musk tibetene (1-tert.-butyl-3,4,5-trimethyl-2,6-dinitrobenzene) were tested for SOS inducing potency in the SOS chromotest with E. coli PQ37 and for sister-chromatid exchange inducing activities in human lymphocytes in vitro both in the presence and absence of an exogenous metabolizing system from rat liver S9-Mix. Nitrro musks revealed no genotoxicity either in the SOS chromotest with E. coli PQ37 or in the sister-chromatid exchange test with human lymphocytes.
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