Cytogenetic effects of epoxy, phenolformaldehyde and polyvinylchloride resins in man

The cytogenetic analysis of persons occupationally exposed to synthetic resins has revealed a true increase in the average frequency of cells with chromosome aberrations: 5.5% for epoxy resin (146 persons), 6.1% for polyvinylchloride (52 persons), and 5.0% for phenolformaldehyde (31 persons). An incidence of 2.4% was observed in the control (74 persons). The average frequency of aberrant chromosomes per cell for all the synthetic resins (0.054-0.065) differed from the control. The average frequency of chromosome breaks per chromosome did not differ significantly from the control. Acentric fragments (single and paired) was the prevalent type of aberration.