In a cross-sectional study, a random sample of 197 male workers drawn from different sections of 10 leather tanneries in Kanpur were selected for the assessment of health risks. A control group comprising of 117 male subjects belonging to a similar age group and socioeconomic strata, who never had any occupational exposure in the leather tanneries, were also examined for the comparison purpose. The findings revealed a significantly higher prevalence of morbidity among the exposed workers in contrast to that observed in the controls (40.1% vs. 19.6%). The respiratory diseases (16.7%) were mainly responsible for a higher morbidity among the exposed workers whereas the gastrointestinal tract problems were predominant in the control group. The urinary and blood samples collected from the exposed group showed significantly higher levels of chromium, thereby reflecting the body burden of Cr in the exposed workers as a result of a high concentration of environmental Cr at the work place.

Petrol (gasoline) contains a number of toxicants. This study used human biomonitoring to evaluate the genotoxic effects of exposure to benzene in petrol fumes in 100 Indian petrol-pump workers (PPWs) and an equal number of controls. The study was corroborated with in silico assessments of the Comet assay results from the human biomonitoring study. An in vitro study in human lymphocytes was also conducted to understand the genotoxicity of benzene and its metabolites. In a subset of the population studied, higher blood benzene levels were detected in the PPWs (n = 39; P < 0.01) than the controls (n = 18), and 100-250 ppb benzene was also detected in air samples from the petrol pumps. PPWs had higher levels of DNA damage than the controls (P < 0.01). In addition, the micronucleus assay was performed on lymphocytes from a subset of the subjects, and the micronucleus frequency for PPWs was significantly higher (n = 39; 14.79 +/- 3.92 per thousand) than the controls (n = 18; 7.54 +/- 3.00 per thousand). Human lymphocytes were treated in vitro with benzene and several of its metabolites and assayed for DNA damage with the Comet assay. Benzene and its metabolites produced significant (P < 0.05) levels of DNA damage at and above concentrations of 10 microM. The metabolite, p-benzoquinone, produced the greatest amount of DNA damage, followed by hydroquinone > benzene > catechol > 1,2,4,-benzenetriol > muconic acid. This study demonstrates that, using sensitive techniques, it is possible to detect human health risks at an early stage when intervention is possible. possible.

Oxidative stress status and Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity were studied in blood samples obtained from 61 agricultural workers engaged in spraying organophosphorus (OP) insecticides in the mango plantation, with a minimum work history of one year, in the age range of 12-55 years. Controls were age-matched, unexposed workers, who never had any exposure to OP pesticides. They were evaluated for oxidative stress markers MDA (end product of lipid peroxidation), reduced glutathione (GSH), and Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) levels in blood. The results showed a marked inhibition of the AChE and BChE activities in the sprayers as compared to the controls. The malondialdehyde(MDA), the last product of lipid peroxidation was found to be increased significantly in sprayers(p<0.05), while depletion in the concentration of antioxidant glutathione(GSH) was also observed in the sprayers but the difference was statistically not significant. It was concluded on the basis of biochemical analysis that pesticides sprayers are exposed to more oxidative stress as evidenced by the changes in antioxidant status. The measurement of the AChE and BChE activities in agricultural workers who spray OPs could be a good biomonitoring factor and is recommended to be performed on a regular basis.

Pesticides are used extensively throughout the world in agriculture and in pest control as well as for community health purposes. Organophosphate (OP) pesticide self-poisoning is an important clinical problem in rural regions of the developing world that kills an estimated 200,000 people every year. Unintentional poisoning kills far fewer people but is an apparent problem in places where highly toxic OP pesticides are available. Neurologic dysfunction is the best documented health effect of pesticide exposure. High-level exposure has both acute and long-term neurologic signs and symptoms, and adverse effects have been reported in most type of pesticides, including organophosphate (OP), carbamate, organochlorine, and pyrethroid insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, and fumigants. Acute OP pesticide exposure can involve in wide range of both central and peripheral neurologic symptoms. Increased neurologic symptom prevalence may provide early evidence of neurologic dysfunctions, before clinically measurable signs are evident.In this study, we analyzed the cross-sectional data on neurologic signs and symptoms from 225 rural children, both males (n = 132) and females (n = 93) who were occupationally and paraoccupationally exposed to methyl OPs (dichlorvos, fenthion, malathion, methyl parathion) and ethyl OPs (chlorpyrifos, diazinon, ethyl parathion) as they belonged to agricultural families handling, mixing, and spraying the OP pesticides. The children completed a specially designed questionnaire (Q16) on neurologic symptoms associated with pesticide exposure with their parental help. A suitable reference group consisting of rural children (n = 50) never involved in pesticide handling (neither outdoor nor indoor) belonging to similar socioeconomic strata included in the study to compare the prevalence of various neurologic symptoms between the two groups.Among all the neurologic self-reported symptoms, headache, watering in eyes, and burning sensation in eye/face were the most important clinical manifestations attributed to OP pesticide exposure. These symptoms could probably be the consequence of chronic effects of most pesticides on the central nervous system. The muscarinic symptoms reported the maximum prevalence of salivation (18.22%), whereas lacrimation was observed in 17.33% cases, followed by diarrhea in 9.33% cases. The nicotinic clinical manifestations of acute OP poisoning revealed excessive sweating in 13.78% cases and tremors in 9.3% cases followed by mydriasis in 8.4% exposed children. The characteristic cholinergic symptoms, such as insomnia, headache, muscle cramps, weakness, and anorexia were also reported by both male and female exposed children. The high frequency of neurologic symptoms observed in the study may be due to parasympathetic hyperactivity due to the accumulated ACh resulting from AChE inhibition.

To evaluate the health impact of spraying organophosphorus insecticides (OPs), 34 male sprayers in the mango belt of Malihabad, a small town located 27 km from Lucknow in North India was selected. Plasma butyryl cholinesterase (PBChE) and complete blood count were assessed among sprayers after spraying pesticides and the findings obtained were compared with those determined in a reference group (n = 18). The most common symptoms observed were burning sensation in the eyes (8.82%), itching/skin irritation (23.52%) and chest symptoms (32.35%) in the exposed workers. Plasma butyrylcholinesterase (PBChE) was significantly decreased in workers. The results indicated significant decrease in the mean value of hemoglobin, hematocrit and platelets count; however, significantly higher count of leukocytes was also observed in the exposed group (sprayers) compared to that observed in the control group (P < 0.05). Monitoring of PBChE in pesticide sprayers could be useful to predict and prevent health hazards of OPs.

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The Comet assay has found wide acceptance in monitoring human genotoxicity caused by lifestyle and occupational and environmental factors. In the present study, we have used the Comet assay to measure the DNA damage in a population of rural Indian women cooking with biomass fuels (BMFs; fire wood and cow dung cakes). Out of 144 volunteers, 70 used BMFs for domestic cooking, while the remaining 74 used liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and served as a reference population. All the individuals had comparable socioeconomic backgrounds and were between 20 and 55 years of age. Significantly higher levels of DNA damage were observed for BMF users than for LPG users. For BMF users in comparison with the reference population, Olive tail moment was 3.83 +/- 0.15 (arbitrary units) vs. 2.77 +/- 0.07 (P < 0.001); % tail DNA was 11.19 +/- 0.35 vs. 8.29 +/- 0.20 (P < 0.001); and comet tail length (microm) was 51.15 +/- 1.37 vs. 40.26 +/- 0.88 (P < 0.001). Similar significant differences were found when the groups were stratified by age and length of exposure. This study suggests that exposure to BMF smoke leads to greater levels of DNA damage than exposure to LPG combustion products.

A random sample of 342 workers engaged in chipping and grinding of agate stones were surveyed in a cross-sectional study to assess the prevalence of respiratory morbidity in the agate industry. The findings were compared with those obtained in controls. The study showed a significantly higher prevalence of lung diseases among agate workers than among controls (63.4% vs 35.5%, P less than 0.001). The respiratory morbidity in agate workers and controls was maximal in the group aged 31+ years (83.3% and 42.2%, respectively). The prevalence of pneumoconiosis in agate workers (18.4%) was highly significant as compared with controls, in whom not a single case was found (P less than 0.001). However, there was no significant difference between the prevalence of pneumoconiosis in men and women of the exposed group (17.9% vs 19.6%). Among the cases of pulmonary diseases in agate workers, pneumoconiosis formed the largest group (18.4%), whereas among controls it was tuberculosis (12.1%). The prevalence of pulmonary tuberculosis was very high in both agate workers and controls (15.5% and 12.1%, respectively), probably because of poor socio-economic and unhygienic living conditions. The prevalence of chronic bronchitis was found to be higher among the control population as compared with the exposed group (6.7% vs 2.6%). It therefore appeared that agate dust had no role in precipitating chronic bronchitis. However, bronchial asthma appeared to have been aggravated due to agate dust, as the risk among agate workers was 7-fold that found among the controls. The prevalence of pneumoconiosis showed a dose-response relationship in both male and female agate workers.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)