Studies of biomarkers in aluminum workers occupationally exposed to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

Evaluation of biomarkers for genotoxic exposure are important for future use of such biomarkers in cancer prevention. We have studied a group of aluminum plant workers for a period of 2.5 years. The level of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) has been monitored at the work place (cathode relining). During the study period, urine and blood were sampled up to seven times from the same workers. Mean level of urinary 1-hydroxypyrene varied from 1.08 to 2.44 mumol/mol creatinine in the exposed groups compared with 0.36 and 0.20 mumol/mol creatinine in the two reference groups. For a group of 14 workers the intraindividual variation of urinary 1-hydroxypyrene was analyzed. The relative standard deviation of the values was < or = 0.50 for half of the workers; the relative standard deviation was calculated for individual values divided by mean of each time point. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon-DNA adducts in white blood cells from exposed and nonexposed workers were measured by both immunoassay and 32P-postlabeling. By 32P-postlabeling mean values of 12.0 adducts/10(8) and 10.8 adducts/10(8) nucleotides were found in a PAH-exposed group and a reference group, respectively. Intraindividual variation of PAH-DNA adducts was also analyzed.