Biomonitoring of occupational exposure to styrene in a plastics lamination plant

Cytogenetic markers, DNA single-strand breaks, urinary metabolites, and DNA repair rates in styrene-exposed lamination workers.

“…Cytogenetic markers. In contrast to previous findings (Artuso et al 1995;Somorovska et al 1999), we did not observe any effect of styrene exposure on CA frequencies; nor were chromatid-type aberrations, previously shown to be indicative of styrene treatment (Jantunen et al 1986), increased in the exposed subjects. The BN MN frequencies were associated with the concentrations of styrene in the air and in blood and of urinary metabolites and with cumulative exposure index, suggesting an effect of the occupational exposure on MN formation, after adjustment for known confounders (age and sex).…”

“…SSBs in DNA were significantly lower in exposed workers than in those unexposed and correlated inversely with parameters of internal exposure. This is in striking contrast to previous studies (Vodicka et al 1999), where an exposure-related increase in SSBs was found and SSBs correlated significantly with O 6 -styrene-guanine DNA adducts (Vodicka et al 1995) and CA (Somorovska et al 1999). This discrepancy may be caused by differences among the populations examined: The previous consisted of individuals exposed for 14 years on average, whereas workers in the present study were exposed to styrene for less than 4 years.…”

“…SSB Endo III sites, reflecting either abasic sites or oxopyrimidines, were almost identical in both the exposed and control groups, but in contrast to our previous study (Somorovska et al 1999), we recorded this type of DNA damage at clearly distinguishable levels. Because oxidative DNA damage may arise because of various intrinsic and extrinsic factors and SSB Endo III sites represent a nonspecific marker, it is difficult to pinpoint the origin of this DNA damage in the present population.…”

“…Styrene is known to induce DNA singlestrand breaks (SSBs) in human white blood cells (Vodicka et al 1999) as well as cytogenetic damage in peripheral blood lymphocytes of styrene-exposed workers (Artuso et al 1995;Somorovska et al 1999;Tates et al 1994). A recent hypothesis has postulated that oxidative stress may arise as a result of imbalance between oxidants and antioxidants and contributes to the genotoxic effects of styrene exposure (Marczynski et al 2000).…”

Metabolic and DNA Repair Variations in Susceptibility to Genotoxins

“…In particular, all studies on smoke exposure and 70% of those on occupational exposure (three studies covered styrene exposure) were positive. With regard to styrene exposure (171)(172)(173), the genotype EPHX slow was found to increase CAs in two different occupational studies (172,173). On exposure to pesticides (or where the type of exposure was not clearly described) the influence of unfavorable combinations of genotypes CYP2E1, GSTM1, and PON1 was noted (169), and on exposure to urban air those of GSTM1 null in combination with NAT2 slow (170).…”