Cytogenetic monitoring of a village population potentially exposed to a low level of environmental pollutants. Phase 1:SCE analysis.

By analogy to the techniques applied for monitoring biological effects of exposure to genotoxic agents in occupational populations, we have carried out cytogenetic monitoring in a group of inhabitants of a village (Mellery, Belgium) suspected to have been exposed to a variety of toxic environmental pollutants. These pollutants probably originated from a neighboring chemical wastes site. A group of 51 environmentally exposed and 52 reference persons (including children) were examined for the frequency of sister-chromatid exchanges (SCE) in their peripheral blood lymphocytes.

Increased sister chromatid exchange frequencies observed in a cohort of inhabitants of a village located at the boundary of an industrial dumping ground: phase I.

Since the mid-eighties, a sand pit located at the boundary of Mellery, a small village in Belgium, has been used as a dumping ground for industrial waste. After a particularly dry summer, many people complained of very foul smells coming from the dumping ground. An analysis of the environmental atmosphere detected alkanes and chlorinated saturated and unsaturated hydrocarbons in various concentrations.

[In vitro lymphocytic transformation chromosome breakage and cellular damage in Ataxia-Telangiectasia].

The lymphocytic transformation in vitro has been studied in 2 cases of ataxia-telangiectasia and compared to that of 2 controls. Significant difference was found between the two groups in the behavior of lymphocytes for two different times of culture. After 48 hrs culturing, important individual variability in RNA synthesis and lower per cent of cells in mitosis was found in the first group.