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Occupational and life-style factors-acquired mutagenicity in agric-workers of northeastern Brazil

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Abstract

Pesticides are a complex mixture of chemicals used to protect crops from a number of pests and diseases. They have been considered as potential mutagenic agents. This study aims at evaluation of the mutagenic effect of pesticide exposure to agricultural workers through chromosomal aberrations (CA) and micronucleus (MN) assay in peripheral blood lymphocytes and oral mucosal cells, respectively. The exposed group was consisted with 97 farmers, while the control (un-exposed) group consisted of 55. The results showed a significant (p < 0.05) increase in frequency of CA and MN in the exposed group. Both CA and MN profiles were linked to a significant (p < 0.05) co-relation with the confounding factors such as smoking habits, alcohol, vegetables, tea/coffee, vitamins, and sweetener consumptions. More cytogenetic events were denoted in smoking and alcohol consumption as well as non-personal protective equipment (non-PPE) and low/no vegetables user farmers. In conclusion, a deficiency of dietary and medicaments-derived antioxidants, while consumption of alcohol and tobacco, as well as effects of radiation, heavy metal poisoning (especially from sweeteners), and non-PPE using habits, may contribute cytogenetic damage to the workers.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledged the Department of Health, Piauí, through the Laboratory for Toxicology and Molecular Genetics (LABTOXGEN/LACEN-PI) and volunteers from the municipalities of Piauí, Brazil.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health, Board of Health Surveillance of Piauí, Teresina, Brazil

    Tatiana Vieira Souza Chaves, Manoel Odoríco de Moraes & Fabrício Pires de Moura do Amaral

  2. Postgraduate Program in Biotechnology, Federal University of Piauí, Teresina, Piauí, 64.049-550, Brazil

    Muhammad Torequl Islam, Marcus Vinícius Oliveira Barros de Alencar, Débora Cássia Vieira Gomes, Rodrigo Mendes de Carvalho, Gilberto Santos Cerqueira & Ana Amélia de Carvalho Melo-Cavalcante

  3. Department of Pharmacy, Southern University Bangladesh, Mehedigbag, Chittagong, 4000, Bangladesh

    Muhammad Torequl Islam

  4. Medical Genetics Service, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre, Brazil

    Sharbel Weider Maluf

  5. Postgraduate Program in Cellular and Molecular Biology Applied to Health, Lutheran University of Brazil, Canoas, Brazil

    Márcia Fernanda Correia Jardim Paz

  6. Federal University of Piauí, Teresina, Piauí, 64.049-550, Brazil

    Hercília Maria Lins Rolim, João Marcelo de Castro e Sousa & Ana Amélia de Carvalho Melo-Cavalcante

  7. Department of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Piauí, Picos, PI, 64.600-000, Brazil

    João Marcelo de Castro e Sousa

  8. Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Federal University of Ceará, Fortaleza, Brazil

    Maria Elisabete Amaral de Moraes

Authors
  1. Tatiana Vieira Souza Chaves
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  2. Muhammad Torequl Islam
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  3. Manoel Odoríco de Moraes
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  4. Marcus Vinícius Oliveira Barros de Alencar
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  8. Fabrício Pires de Moura do Amaral
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  9. Márcia Fernanda Correia Jardim Paz
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  11. Hercília Maria Lins Rolim
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  12. João Marcelo de Castro e Sousa
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  13. Ana Amélia de Carvalho Melo-Cavalcante
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  14. Maria Elisabete Amaral de Moraes
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Muhammad Torequl Islam.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

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Chaves, T.V.S., Islam, M.T., de Moraes, M.O. et al. Occupational and life-style factors-acquired mutagenicity in agric-workers of northeastern Brazil. Environ Sci Pollut Res 24, 15454–15461 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-9150-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-9150-y

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