Increased Sister Chromatid Exchange Frequencies Observed in a Cohort of Inhabitants of a Village Located at the Boundary of an Industrial Dumping Ground: Phase

Since the mid-eighties, a sand pit located at the boundary of Mellery, a small village in Belgium, has been used as a dumping ground for industrial waste. After a particularly dry summer, many people complained of very foul smells coming from the dumping ground. An analysis of the environmental atmosphere detected alkanes and chlorinated saturated and unsaturated hydrocarbons in various concentrations. Consequently, the Belgian Ministry of the Environment requested additional measurements from the dumping site and the surrounding regions. Given the hazards and possible ill health effects associated with simultaneous exposure to low levels of many chemicals, biomarkers of personal exposure were measured in a representative group of people living in this village. The cytogenetic consequences of daily exposure to a mixture of genotoxicants were measured by the Sister Chromatid Exchange assay. The study included a group of 51 environmentally exposed persons (including 1 1 children) and 52 controls. A significant increase in Sister Chromatid Exchange frequency was detected among the inhabitants of the village compared to that of the control group, especially among the children living in Mellery as compared to the matched control children. Introduction The SCE3 assay was introduced as a sensitive technique for biomonitoning people professionally exposed to chemical mutagens. Now, having been used extensively over the last 10 years, the assay has been quite well documented by separate scientific observations (1-6). Biomonitoning has usually been restricted to occupational exposure and published results are thus limited to exposed and control subjects of working age. There are Received 8/10/92. I Supported by the Belgian Ministry of Public Health. 2 To whom requests for reprints should be addressed. 3 The abbreviations used are: SCE, Sister Chromatid Exchange (assay); HFC, high frequency cell(s); NS, not significant. few data, if any, on children suspected of having been exposed to genotoxic agents. In the mid-eighties, a sand pit located in a small village in Belgium was converted to a dumping ground for industrial waste. Once the sand pit was completely filled, the dumping site was covered with a 1 .5-m bed of clay-like soil. During the summer of 1989, due to dry, mild atmospheric conditions, the clay layer cracked and gases escaped. Many people complained of the very foul smells that came from the dumping ground. As a result, the Department of Pollution Prevention asked the Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology to perform some qualitative and quantitative analyses of the gases emerging from the superficial bed of soil. Alkanes and chlorinated saturated and unsaturated hydrocarbons were detected in various concentrations in the environmental atmosphere (Table 1). Some of the pollutants detected are known to display mutagenic and/or carcinogenic properties. Consequently, The Belgian Ministry of the Environment asked for additional measurements at the dumping site and in the surrounding regions given the hazards and possible ill health effects associated with simultaneous exposure to low levels of many chemicals. Biomarkers of personal exposure were evaluated in a representative group of people living in this village located at the edge of the dumping ground and under dominant winds. The Sister Chromatid Exchange assay was used to evaluate the cytogenetic consequences of daily exposure to a mixture of genotoxicants. A second aim of the study was to evaluate the sensitivity of the Sister Chromatid Exchange assay in cases of potential nonprofessional exposure to low levels of known mutagens and suspected carcinogens. Materials and Methods Atmospheric Measurements Different types of measurements were carried out, all using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry with three analyzers (Hewlett-Packard GC/MS type 5993B; Tracer 570 GC; Vanian 3700 GC flame ionization) (7, 8); (a) quantitative and qualitative determination of gas coming out at ground level at the dumping site by sampling of air in plastic bags; (b) estimation of mean substance concentrations at sites surrounding the area; sampling was done over a short period of time (a few minutes to 1 h) by absorption to tenax; and (c) estimation of mean substance concentrations at 3 places in the village; sampling was done over a long period of time (24 h) by absorption to active coal. on August 27, 2017. © 1993 American Association for Cancer Research. cebp.aacrjournals.org Downloaded from