EVALUATION OF SOME BIOMONITORING MARKERS IN OCCUPATIONALLY EXPOSED POPULATIONS TO ACRYLONITRILE

In the present work we studied acrylonitrile (AN) occupationally expos ed populations and respective control individuals working in a Portugu ese plant producing acrylic textile fibers. Three subgroups of individ uals were considered: controls (C), workers of the continuous polymeri zation (CP) area, and workers of equipment maintenance (MM). Besides a iming to contribute to a better understanding of the hazardous exposur e of man to AN, the study aimed to help Validate and optimize the use of a combination of methods applied to human populations exposed to ge notoxic compounds. Three main compartments related to the dose or effe ct of the hazardous compound were evaluated using various assessment m ethods: 1) internal dose (genotoxicity in urine, indicators of oxidati ve stress, induction of cytochromes P450); 2) biological effective dos e (hemoglobin adducts); and 3) early biological effects (chromosomal a berrations, sister chromatid exchanges). Although concern with exposur e to AN has long been the subject of numerous studies, they have been carried out essentially in animals and using in vitro systems. The sig nificant differences (P < 0.01) found in the chromosomal aberrations o f MM are in agreement with the highly significant levels of hemoglobin adducts described in another study performed in the same population. Hemoglobin adducts were also sensitive in detecting a hazardous exposu re in the case of CP. The results obtained for the lipid peroxidation indicator used seem to confirm the AN capability of inducing lipid per oxidation in vivo. From the results available it seems that chromosoma l aberrations as well as hemoglobin adducts are accurate and sensitive biomonitoring markers for AN exposure. (C) 1997 Wiley-Liss,Inc.