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Pavel Vodicka,¹ Jarno Tuimala,² Rudolf Stetina,³ Rajiv Kumar,^4,5 Paola Manini,⁶ Alessio Naccarati,^1,7 Luciano Maestri,⁸ Ludmila Vodickova,⁹ Miroslava Kuricova,¹ Hilkka Järventaus,² Zuzana Majvaldova,¹⁰ Ari Hirvonen,² Marcello Imbriani,⁸ Antonio Mutti,⁶ Lucia Migliore,⁷ Hannu Norppa,² and Kari Hemminki^4,5

¹Institute of Experimental Medicine, Academy of Science of the Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic; ²Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Toxicology, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Helsinki, Finland; ³Purkynje Military Medical Academy, Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic; ⁴Department of Bioscience at Novum, Karolinska Institute, Huddinge, Sweden; ⁵German Cancer Institute, Heidelberg, Germany; ⁶Laboratory of Industrial Toxicology, University of Parma, Parma, Italy; ⁷Department of Human and Environmental Health, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy; ⁸Fondazione S. Maugeri and University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy; ⁹National Institute of Public Health, Prague, Czech Republic; ¹⁰Regional Hygiene Station, Ústí/Orlicí, Czech Republic

Abstract
The effect of occupational exposure to styrene on frequencies of chromosomal aberrations and binucleated cells with micronuclei and on single-strand break levels in peripheral blood lymphocytes was studied in 86 reinforced plastic workers and 42 control individuals (including 16 maintenance workers with intermittent, low-dose exposure) . In these individuals, the irradiation-specific DNA repair rates and the repair rates of 8-oxoguanines were investigated. We assessed the exposure by measuring the concentrations of styrene in air and in blood and of mandelic acid, phenylglyoxylic acid, 4-vinyl phenol conjugates and regioisomeric phenyl hydroxyethyl mercapturic acids in urine. All these parameters correlated with one another. No clear relationship was found between the styrene exposure and the frequencies of chromosomal aberrations. Binucleated cells with micronuclei were moderately related to the parameters of styrene exposure. We found a negative correlation between all exposure parameters and single-strand breaks. The positive correlation between exposure parameters and DNA repair rates suggests that particular DNA repair pathways may be induced by styrene exposure. Key words: DNA repair rates, genotoxicity, styrene exposure, urinary metabolites. Environ Health Perspect 112:867-871 (2004) . doi:10.1289/ehp.6849 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 12 February 2004]

Address correspondence to P. Vodicka, Department of Genetic and Molecular Toxicology, Institute of Experimental Medicine, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Videnska 1083, 142 20 Prague 4, Czech Republic. Telephone: 420-2-41062694. Fax: 420-2-41062782. E-mail: pvodicka@biomed.cas.cz

This study was supported by grants EU QLK4-CT-1999-01368, GACR 310/01/0802, GACR 310/03/0437, and AVOZ5039906.

The authors declare they have no competing financial interests.

Received 10 November 2003 ; accepted 12 February 2004.