Mutagens in urine of carbon electrode workers

Following previous work carried out in an Italian factory producing carbon electrodes and evaluating the occupational mutagenic-carcinogenic hazards, the authors studied the presence of mutagen metabolites in the urine of workers in the same factory who were exposed to petroleum coke and pitch and in the urine of a control group of unexposed workers. The urine samples were concentrated by absorption on XAD-2 columns and were tested using the Salmonella/microsome assay (strain TA 98, TA 100, TA 1535, TA 1538) with and without the addition of beta-glucuronidase and metabolizing system. The collection of urine samples was carried out twice, with an interval of 2 months; "before working time", "after working time", and also during Sunday. The results showed that (1) urine samples collected "before" occupational exposure (upon waking) or on Sunday revealed no mutagenic activity in either worker groups and (2) that the urine samples collected after or during occupational exposure revealed high mutagenic activity in the exposed workers, with a statistically significant difference (P less than 0.05) between the mean of the revertants/plate values for exposed and unexposed workers. On the basis of the previous and the present research, the authors suggest that application of the Salmonella/microsome test to work environments could offer useful and suitable tool for evaluating the health hazards due to mutagenic/carcinogenic substances from occupational exposure.