Abreu Ana, Costa Carla, Pinho E Silva Susana, Morais Simone, do Carmo Pereira Maria, Fernandes Adília, Moraes de Andrade Vanessa, Teixeira João Paulo, Costa Solange
a EPIUnit-Instituto de Saúde Pública, Universidade do Porto , Porto , Portugal.
b Environmental Health Department, National Institute of Health, Environmental Health Department , Porto , Portugal.
J Toxicol Environ Health A. 2017;80(13-15):596-604. doi: 10.1080/15287394.2017.1286896. Epub 2017 May 19.
Portugal is among the European Union countries most devastated by forest fires each year. In the last three decades, more than 3.8 million hectares of forest were burned. Wildland firefighters are exposed to a variety of hazards, including many toxic combustion products that may lead to deleterious health effects. Epidemiological studies showed a positive association between firefighting and several chronic diseases, including cancer. Results from biomonitoring studies in firefighters, particularly concerning genotoxicity evaluation, constitute a valuable tool for investigating important occupational hazards. Thus, the aim of this study was to assess genotoxicity in a group of wildland firefighters using the comet assay for DNA damage and oxidative stress. Both parameters were increased in firefighters compared to controls, but significance was only found for basal DNA damage. No significant influence was found regarding major confounding variables on the genotoxic endpoints studied, with the exception of age. Data obtained provide preliminary information on human health effects of wildland firefighting exposure at genetic and molecular levels. These findings may also provide new important data to serve as public awareness to the potential adverse health risks involving wildland firefighting. Implementation of security and hygiene measures in this sector as well as good practices campaigns may be crucial to decrease risk.
葡萄牙是每年遭受森林火灾破坏最严重的欧盟国家之一。在过去三十年里，超过380万公顷的森林被烧毁。野外消防员面临各种危害，包括许多可能导致有害健康影响的有毒燃烧产物。流行病学研究表明，灭火工作与包括癌症在内的几种慢性病之间存在正相关。消防员生物监测研究的结果，特别是关于遗传毒性评估的结果，是调查重要职业危害的宝贵工具。因此，本研究的目的是使用彗星试验评估一组野外消防员的遗传毒性，以检测DNA损伤和氧化应激。与对照组相比，消防员的这两个参数均有所增加，但仅在基础DNA损伤方面具有统计学意义。除年龄外，未发现主要混杂变量对所研究的遗传毒性终点有显著影响。所获得的数据提供了关于野外灭火暴露在基因和分子水平上对人类健康影响的初步信息。这些发现也可能提供新的重要数据，以提高公众对野外灭火潜在健康风险的认识。在该部门实施安全和卫生措施以及开展良好做法宣传活动对于降低风险可能至关重要。
