Genetic Toxicology ELSEVIER Mutation Research 367 (1996) 161-167 No increase in micronuclei frequency in cultured blood lymphocytes from a group of filling station attendants M. Pitarque a, E. Carbonell a, N. Lapefia b, M. Marsfi b, M. Torres b, A. Creus a, N. Xamena a, R. Marcos a,* a Grup de Mutagbnesi. Unitat de Genbtica, Departament de Gen~tica i de Microbiologia, Ed!~ci Cn, Unicersitat Authnoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Cerdanyola del Vallbs, Spain h Centre de Seguretat i Condicions de Salut en el TrebalL Departament de Treball, General#at de Catalunya. 08034 Barcelona, 5'pain Received 21 July 1995; revised 8 November 1995; accepted 22 November 1995 Abstract Service station attendants are workers that are definitely exposed to petroleum derivatives. Taking into account that this exposure has been considered to possess genotoxic risk, here we present data on the biomonitoring of a group of 50 service station workers and 43 controls. Micronuclei (MN) from peripheral blood lymphocytes has been considered as the genetic endpoint to be studied and, in addition, data on the concentration of aromatic hydrocarbons at the workplace, urinary metabolites and differential white blood cell count have also been analysed. The results obtained indicate no significant differences between petrol station attendants and controls, when the effects of petrol exposure were investigated by differential white blood cell count and analysis of MN frequencies in phytohaemagglutinin-stimulated lymphocytes. Regarding the urinary metabolites, a significant increase in the phenol level was found in the exposed workers. Keywords: Biomonitoring; Human lymphocyte;Micronucleus; Petroleum derivative; Service station worker; White blood cell count 1. Introduction of exposure to chromosome damaging agents (Natarajan and Obe, 1980; de Jong et al., 1988), Exposure to environmental pollutants can increase therefore, an increased level of chromosome break- the frequency of genetic damage in a given popula- age could be a relevant biomarker of future cancer tion. Thus, increases in the frequency of chromo- risk (Hagmar et al., 1994). some aberrations (CA), sister-chromatid exchanges Petroleum derivatives are major environmental (SCE) and, more recently, micronuclei (MN) in hu- pollutants widespread in such a way that human man lymphocytes have been used as good indicators exposure occurs. Epidemiological-environmental studies conducted on human populations exposed to petroleum exhausts have shown that there is an ~ Correspondingauthor. Tel.: +34 3 581 2052; Fax: +34 3 increased incidence of diseases such as lymphopoi- 581 2387. etic cancer, lung cancer and non-malignant respira- 0165-1218/96/$15.00 © 1996 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved SSDI 0165-1218(95)00091-7