Quaternary ammonium salts are widely used in industrial, agricultural, healthcare and domestic applications. They are believed to be safe compounds, with little or no health hazard to humans. However, in this report, we demonstrate that a series of newly synthesized quaternary ammonium salts containing carbohydrate moieties reveal potent mutagenic activities, as assessed by using the Vibrio harveyi bioluminescence mutagenicity test. D-Gluco- and D-galacto-derivatives were found to have a higher mutagenic potential than D-manno-derivatives. Among the former groups of compounds, the N-[2-(D-glycopyranosyloxy)ethyl]-N,N,N-trimethylaminium salts were of the highest activity in the mutagenicity assay. These results suggest that the safety of quaternary ammonium salts may be lower than previously supposed, indicating a need for testing such compounds for their mutagenicity. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.