Effects of cigarette smoking and solvent exposure on sister chromatid exchange frequency in painters

A cross-sectional study of sister chromatid exchange frequency (SCE) in peripheral blood lymphocytes from 117 members of the International Brotherhood of Painters and Allied Tradesman was conducted in union locals in two major U.S. cities. Chronic solvent exposure intensity and duration were estimated from interviewer-administered-questionnaire data. SCE for all of the workers in the study were scored by one reader. A second reader determined the SCE frequency from a random sample of 30 workers. No significant difference in SCE frequency was associated with reader or time of reading. Age, coffee and alcohol intake and chronic solvent exposure (both intensity and duration, estimated over the working lifetime and over the year prior to study for each worker) did not significantly elevate SCE. The effect of smoking on SCE frequency, assessed by analysis of variance controlling for other possible confounding factors, showed that smoking increased SCE frequency (P less than .0001). The SCE frequency in the smoking, solvent-exposed (estimated as lifetime exposure) painters was 6.75 SCE/cell; in the non-smoking, solvent-exposed workers the SCE frequency was 5.73 SCE/cell; the controls had SCE levels of 6.84 SCE/cell (smokers) and 5.90 SCE/cell (non-smokers), respectively. These observations are consistent with other work suggesting that chronic solvent exposure in the paint trade is not associated with an elevation in SCE in peripheral blood lymphocytes. However, further work is necessary to address adequately the question of the genotoxicity of acute solvent exposure in these workers.