[Smoking as an additional risk factor for the staff of chemically hazardous production facilities]

One of the factors that increase the risk of genotoxic effects in the staff of chemically hazardous production facilities is smoking. There was performed the cytogenetic study in 104 males working with highly toxic chemicals, 71 people out of which were smokers and 33--non-smokers. No statistically significant differences were revealed between groups of smokers and nonsmokers. Among smokers 39 males smoked more than 15 cigarettes per day and were referred to the group of "heavy smokers", 32 cases were light smokers (less than 15 cigarettes per day). The level of chromatid exchanges and exchange of chromosomal aberrations (dicentric and ring chromosomes, atypical atypical monocentrics) in the group of "heavy smokers" were shown to be significant higher than in non-smokers and light smokers groups. Our data confirm the synergistic effect of smoking and the factors of increased chemical hazards.