Genotoxic effects of occupational exposure in the peripheral blood lymphocytes of pesticide preparing workers in Hungary.

Venous blood samples of 240 donors including 33 industrial and 60 historical controls were investigated in order to assess the genotoxic risk of pesticide preparing workers manufacturing monochlorinated benzene in Hungary. Mutation frequencies were determined in the hypoxanthine-(guanine)-phosphoribosyl transferase genes located on the X chromosome. DNA repair capacity was estimated following hydroxyurea treatment with subsequent UV irradiation of separated lymphocytes. Smoking as confounding factor of genotoxicity was also taken into consideration. Mutation frequencies were increased among the workers exposed to monochlorinated benzene in correlation with the duration of working time, compared to the controls. Mutation frequencies were lower than expected among non-smoker, long-exposed workers. Smoking itself proved to be an effective confounding factor in the enhancement of point mutations in the case of long-exposed workers. Smoking, however, caused no significant increase in the mutation frequency among the controls, and did not influence the DNA repair capacity of any of the groups.