BIOLOGICAL EFFECT MONITORING IN INDUSTRIAL-WORKERS FOLLOWING INCIDENTAL EXPOSURE TO HIGH-CONCENTRATIONS OF ETHYLENE-OXIDE

Peripheral blood from four groups of seven workers from a chemical man ufacturing plane in The Netherlands was analyzed for hemoglobin adduct s in erythrocytes and for hprt mutants, micronuclei and SCEs in lympho cytes. Group I workers were incidentally exposed to acute high doses o f ethylene oxide ranging from 52 to 785 mg/m(3). Group II and III work ers were chronically exposed to low doses of ethylene oxide for < 5 ye ars or > 15 years respectively. Group IV workers served as unexposed c ontrols and came from the Occupational Health Department. Hemoglobin a dduct levels in group I workers were very high and ranged from 1461 to 19913 pmol HOEtVal/g Hb approximately 1 month after the accident. HOE tVal values for group II and III workers fluctuated between 0 and 190 pmol/g Hb corresponding with average EtO exposure levels in the range of < 0.01 and 0.06 mg/m(3) EtO. The statistical analysis of the geneti c data did not reveal any statistically significant differences betwee n any combination of worker groups. The genetic tests for group I work ers were performed on blood samples collected 89-180 days after the in cidental exposure. The absence of enhanced frequencies of mutations, m icronuclei and SCEs suggests that significant induction of hprt mutati ons in vivo did not occur and that persistent preclastogenic lesions w ere not present in significant amounts when the exposed lymphocytes we re put in culture to visualize any induced cytogenetic damage. This fi nding implies that the incidental exposure to high concentrations of E tO did not cause any measurable permanent mutational/cytogenetic damag e in exposed lymphocytes.