Lr. Ribeiro et al., BIOLOGICAL MONITORING OF WORKERS OCCUPATIONALLY EXPOSED TO ETHYLENE-OXIDE, Mutation research. Section on environmental mutagenesis and related subjects, 313(1), 1994, pp. 81-87
Ethylene oxide (EtO) is an important intermediate industrial chemical
which is also used for sterilizing medical products and hospital equip
ment. In the present study we have evaluated some biological markers,
such as chromosomal aberrations, micronuclei and EtO-hemoglobin adduct
s in the peripheral blood cells, and micronuclei in buccal exfoliated
cells of 22 controls and 75 workers employed in an industry in Brazil
using EtO as an intermediate. Measurements of EtO in the general area
showed that workers were exposed to 2-5 ppm time-weighted average (TWA
) for an 8-h working day, during the 3-month sampling. Our results ind
icate that exposure to EtO resulted in a statistically significant enh
ancement of chromosomal aberrations (P = 0.01) and of micronuclei in b
inucleated lymphocytes (P < 0.001). For the frequencies of micronuclea
ted cells in buccal mucosa there was no statistically significant diff
erence between exposed and control groups. The mean values of hemoglob
in adduct (HOEtVal) measurements obtained from a selected group of exp
osed and unexposed donors were statistically different.