CORRELATION BETWEEN PAH AIRBORNE CONCENTRATION AND PAH-DNA ADDUCTS LEVELS IN COKE-OVEN WORKERS

In order to evaluate the correlation between peripheral blood leukocyt e DNA adducts as an indicator of exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydro carbons (PAH) and the airborne contamination of PAH at the work places , a survey of a cohort of coke-oven workers has been carried out. In e ach workplace, total and specific PAH airborne concentrations were mea sured. Among the job title groups, the highest proportion of subjects with levels of adducts above the detection limit and the highest mean value were observed in the door-operators. The correlation between med ian values of environmental benzo(a)pyrene concentration and mean valu es of adducts concentration support the fact that the maintenance work ers group has a higher relative risk (RR) to have detectable level of PAH-adducts, which is estimated to be 1.84 for an increase of 1 mug/m3 of benzo(a)pyrene.