BIOMONITORING OF GENOTOXIC EXPOSURE IN ALUMINUM PLANT WORKERS BY DETERMINATION OF DNA-ADDUCTS IN HUMAN PERIPHERAL-BLOOD LYMPHOCYTES

A longitudinal human biomonitoring study has been performed in two Hun garian primary aluminium production plants that operated Soderberg cel ls. Carcinogen-DNA adducts have been determined by P-32-postlabelling and competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in peripheral blood lymphocytes from potroom workers and occupationally unexposed control individuals. Blood samples were collected on three occasions; the firs t two occasions were 1 year apart during normal operation, and the las t samples were taken 6 months after close-down of aluminium production . Assays of the first set of samples demonstrated no significant diffe rence between the control group and workers in Plant I. Workers in Pla nt II had significantly higher DNA adduct levels than individuals in t he control group and workers in Plant I. One year later a significant elevation of DNA adducts was detected in Plant I so that values approa ched those seen in Plant II, which remained unchanged. In the last sam ple set there was no difference between former potroom workers and occ upationally unexposed individuals. The results suggest that carcinogen -DNA adducts are a useful biomarker for monitoring occupational genoto xic exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and that the finding s can contribute to improved health risk assessment.