Occupational Exposure to Formaldehyde and Genetic Damage in the Peripheral Blood Lymphocytes of Plywood Workers

Abstract

Occupational Exposure to Formaldehyde and Genetic Damage in the Peripheral Blood Lymphocytes of Plywood Workers: Dafeng LIN, et al. Institute of Occupational Medicine and the Ministry of Education Key Lab of Environment and Health, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China— Objectives We sought to clarify the association of occupational formaldehyde exposure with DNA strand breaks, chromosome damage and DNA‐protein crosslinks (DPCs) in the peripheral blood (PB) lymphocytes of plywood workers. Methods We determined Olive tail moment (OTM) values, micronucleus (MN) frequencies and DPC rates of the PB lymphocytes in 178 workers divided into control and lower and higher exposure groups according to their current formaldehyde exposure levels and examined the association of each end point with formaldehyde exposure levels and with the number of work years. We also examined each end point in an additional 62 workers before and after an 8‐hour formaldehyde exposure for validating the association. Results OTM values increased significantly in the two exposure groups compared with those in the control group (p<0.05 for both) and were associated with increasing formaldehyde exposure levels =0.002), while MN frequencies increased with (ptrend increasing numbers of work years (p<0.001). The trend dynamic study showed that OTM values and DPC rates increased after an 8‐hour formaldehyde exposure compared with those before the exposure (p<0.001, p=0.019, respectively), that, in a dose‐dependent manner, OTM values were associated with formaldehyde exposure levels during work hours (p=0.005) and that MN frequencies before and after the 8‐hour work exposure were associated with numbers of work years (p=0.029, p<0.001, respectively). Conclusions We found a dose‐response relationship between the current formaldehyde exposure levels and DNA strand breaks and between duration of exposure and chromosome damage in the PB lymphocytes of plywood workers.

Re-evaluation of the WHO (2010) formaldehyde indoor air quality guideline for cancer risk assessment

“…The mean instantaneous peak concentration was 19.5 mg/m 3 (16 ppm), and the upper 95th percentile was 43.4 mg/m 3 (35 ppm). In another study, plywood workers had exposures to high mean concentrations (Lin et al 2013), and the peak concentrations may reasonably have been considerably higher than the mean concentrations. In contrast, workers in a medium density fibreboard plant (Aydin et al 2013) had a stable exposure concentration as the mean and the peak concentrations were of the same order of magnitude (≤0.3 ppm).…”

“…However, the interpretation of the study by Aydin et al (2013) is complicated by the fact that 57 % of the workers used dust masks, suggesting a considerable and unmeasured dust concentration. It is also noted that positive comet assay tests with increased DNA migration were observed in some studies (Lin et al 2013; Costa et al 2015), which is difficult to reconcile with a direct FA effect as FA should induce DPX, causing a decrease in DNA migration (e.g. Speit et al 2009).…”

Chemical Risk in Hospital Settings: Overview on Monitoring Strategies and International Regulatory Aspects

“…While the possibility that inhaled FA may be present in biological fluids in significant concentrations needs to be further investigated, quantification of urinary FA at the end of the work shift is so far the most used test. [38][39][40][41]…”

Formaldehído: revisión bibliográfica sobre biomarcadores de efecto para la medición de la exposición ocupacional

“…Se realizaron medidas del otm, dpc y micronúcleos en los linfocitos de trabajadores expuestos y no expuestos al fa, y se determinó que se tienen incrementos significativos de estos parámetros (p < 0,05) en los trabajadores expuestos, y que dichos valores eran dependientes de la dosis y el tiempo de exposición [16]. Se determinó que los cambios de otm son dependientes de la dosis y frecuencia de exposición al fa, siendo mayor en los trabajadores más expuestos (p < 0,01).…”

“…A nivel molecular, el fa reacciona con proteínas y el adn, formando aductos con la hemoglobina y la albúmina. Además, es muy reactivo con aminas y amidas, formando puentes metilo con el adn, lo cual ha llevado a los investigadores a explorar estos efectos como posibles indicadores de la exposición al fa [12][13][14][15][16][17][18].…”