To study the effect of occupational exposure, smoking, and drinking on lymp
hocyte DNA damage in bus manufacturing workers, 346 employees (106 women an
d 240 men) from six job categories (welders, mechanics, painters, and assem
bling, auxiliary and managerial workers) in a bus manufacturing factory in
Guangzhou were included. Significant differences of tail moment among the s
ix job categories were found (P = 0.003) with adjustment for age and gender
. Smoking increased tail moment significantly (3.14 (2.89-3.40) versus 2.79
mum (2.63-2.97;), P = 0.023). Analysis of covariance showed that occupatio
nal exposure (P = 0.001) and smoking (P = 0.019) had significant effect on
tail moment after adjusting for all factors, whereas age and gender had no
effect on DNA damage. Stratified analysis showed that painters (P = 0.002),
auxiliary workers (P = 0.011), and mechanics (P = 0.044) had larger tail m
oments than managerial workers after adjusting for age, gender, smoking, an
d drinking. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.