Micronuclei frequency in lymphocytes and antioxidants in the blood of traditional limited-resource farm workers exposed to pesticides.

Chronic low-level exposure to synthetic pesticides is implicated in many health conditions that result from the induction of oxidative stress, including cytogenetic damage. The objective of this study was to assess the risk of genotoxicity using micronuclei (MN) formation in lymphocytes and to determine changes in blood antioxidants superoxide dismutase (SOD) in erythrocytes (E) and glutathione (GSH) in E and plasma (PL) in farm workers for six months during a growing season. Blood and urine samples were collected once a month for six months (June to November 2003) from farm workers (n = 15) and urban unexposed controls (n = 10). Lymphocytes from blood were separated by density gradient centrifugation using Histopaque and cultured using the standard technique. There was no significant difference in the cytokinesis blocked proliferation index (CBPI) of lymphocytes between the farm workers and the control group, but there was a 76% increase in average MN frequency in lymphocytes of the farm worker group (P