Abstract
BackgroundEmissions from vehicles are composed of heterogeneous mixtures of hazardous substances; several pollutants such as Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) are amongst the most dangerous substances detected in urban monitoring. A cohort of traffic policemen usually occupationally exposed to PAHs present in the urban environment were examined in order to assess the mutagenicity and DNA capacity repair.MethodsSeventy-two urban traffic policemen working in Catania’s metropolitan area were enrolled in the study. Two spot urine samples were collected from each subject during the whole working cycle as follows: sample 1 (S1), pre-shift on day 1; sample 2 (S2) post-shift on day 6. 1-hydroxypyrene (1-OHP) was measured to serve as an indirect exposure indicator. Urinary mutagenic activity was assessed through the plate incorporation pre-incubation technique with S9, using YG1024 Salmonella typhimurium strain over-sensitive to PAH metabolite. Concentrations of urinary 8-oxodG were measured using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry.ResultsAs regards the exposure to PAHs, results highlighted a statistically significant difference (p < 0.001) between pre-shift on day 1 and post-shift on day 6 levels. Mutagenic activity was detected in 38 (66%) workers on S1 and in 47 (81%) on S2. Also 8-oxodG analysis showed a statistically significant difference between S1 and S2 sampling.ConclusionsThis study demonstrated that occupational exposure to pollutants from traffic emission, assessed via 1-OHP measurements in urine, may lead to DNA repair and mutagenic activity, in line with other studies.
Highlights
Emissions from vehicles are composed of heterogeneous mixtures of hazardous substances [10]; several pollutants such as Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) are amongst the most dangerous substances detected in urban monitoring [11,12,13]
Mutagenic activity was detected in 38 (66%) workers on sample 1 (S1) and in 47 (81%) on sample 2 (S2), the mean levels of revertants/mmol creatinine being 21.26 ± 10.63 and 62.43 ± 20.91, respectively (p < 0.001)
Traffic pollution can be observed in traffic jams, while many studies provided evidence that owing to these events, traffic police workers, bus drivers and other cohorts exposed to traffic pollution are highly exposed to PAHs [56,57,58]
Summary
Emissions from vehicles are composed of heterogeneous mixtures of hazardous substances; several pollutants such as Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) are amongst the most dangerous substances detected in urban monitoring. The association between exposure to traffic-related air pollution and cause-specific mortality and morbidity has long been studied and dealt with in several epidemiological surveys [4, 6,7,8,9]. Benzo(a)pyrene (B(a)P) is one of the best-known PAHs, categorized by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as carcinogenic to humans (group 1). Mutagenicity of PAHs, associated with urban traffic, has been demonstrated only through in-vitro assays [17,18,19,20,21,22]. Epidemiological studies of the correlation between presence of urinary mutagens and exposure to PAHs have been previously conducted [23,24,25,26] and certainly contributed to adapting the law limits on air pollution.
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