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The mutagenicity of bleached pulp mill effluents was compared to the mutagenicity of unbleached waste waters. Mutagenicity was assessed with the Ames test, using metabolic activation systems isolated from the liver of rats and fish. Liver extracts from fish caught in polluted areas, and from fish experimentally exposed to waste water, were also investigated. Pulp mill effluents taken after chlorination showed mutagenic activity. The activity diminished during the waste water treatment. Tissue extracts from fish exposed to various concentrations of treated bleached and unbleached pulp mill effluents showed only slight mutagenic activity in a few samples. In the case of bleached pulp mill effluents monooxygenase activities were elevated in those samples where slight mutagenicity was observed. In the case of unbleached effluents no such correlation was found.

The quality and biological effects of the waste waters released by Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill were monitored chemically and biologically. In 1:5 dilution, the treated waste water induced monooxygenase activity in the liver of grayling and bullhead in standardised laboratory conditions. The Ames test was used to monitor mutagenicity of waste waters of the mill and tissue extracts of fish, sponge, mollusc and plankton collected near the mill and of seals collected from the middle part of the lake. Mutagens were found in waste water produced during pulp chlorination before treatment and in a few samples of fully treated waste water during 10 years (1982-1993). Bottom sediments near the mill showed some mutagenicity. Mutagens were not found in tissues of most aquatic animals studied with the exception of zooplankton, roach and seals collected in Lake Baikal close to the discharge outlet of the mill.