Genotoxicological monitoring of 175 subjects living in the green belts, inner town or near chemical industrial estates in Greater Budapest agglomeration, Hungary.

We studied the effects of chronic low dose exposure to environmental pollutants on the peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) of subjects living in the green belts and the inner town, and/or working in the surrounding of industrial estates of Greater Budapest agglomeration, Hungary. The effects of some biological (gender, age, hematocrit and white blood cell counts), lifestyle (smoking, drinking habits and residential areas), and seasonal confounding factors were also considered. PBLs of 175 Hungarian donors of Budapest agglomeration, i.e. 45 subjects living in the green belts without significant genotoxic exposure (C1), 43 donors living in the inner town (C2), and 87 individuals living and/or working near chemical industrial estates (C3), were analysed for structural and numeric chromosome aberrations (CA), sister-chromatid exchanges (SCE), cell proliferation indices (lectine stimulation, LI; and proliferation rate index, PRI), and UV-light-induced unscheduled DNA synthesis (UDS). Each subject was interviewed personally and also investigated clinically. The three populations were matched for age, smoking and drinking habits. We excluded all donors with acute infectious and/or chronic non-infectious diseases, and/or with exposure to any known chemical hazard. For C1s, the base line CA and SCE frequencies were 0.25% and 6.41 per mitosis, respectively; in C2, these frequencies were 0.48% and 6.07 per mitosis, respectively, and in C3, these data were 1.60% and 5.71 per mitosis, respectively. A significant increase of CA due to chromosome type acentric fragments was demonstrated in the donors living in the inner town (C2), compared to those living in the green belts (C1). In C3s, significant (p < 0.05) elevations were found in the frequencies of gaps, aberrant cells, total aberrations (excluding gaps), chromatid and chromosome type aberrations, and in UDS, compared to C1s. Results indicate an increased genotoxicologic risk in donors living and/or working in industrial areas. Gender-related differences in SCE frequencies were demonstrated in C2 and C3; in the latter smoking-induced changes in UDS were also found. Light drinking did not appear to influence the results.