PERSISTENCE OF O-6-GUANINE DNA-ADDUCTS IN STYRENE-EXPOSED LAMINATION WORKERS DETERMINED BY P-32 POSTLABELING

A modified P-32-postlabelling method was used for the detection of styrene-specific DNA adducts in lamination workers. The persistence of O-6-styrene DNA adducts was studied in DNA from lymphocytes and granulocytes of an exposed and a control group. We compared O-6-adduct levels obtained from a sampling prior to vacation, after 2 weeks of vacation and after an additional 1 month of work. In granulocytes, there was no significant difference in adduct levels between the control and the exposed groups in any individual samplings. In lymphocytes of laminators the detected adduct levels were significantly higher (5.4 adducts/10(8) nucleotides) than those in the controls (1.0 adduct/10(8) nucleotides). The 2 week interruption of exposure did not influence the total O-6-adduct level (4.9 adducts/10(8) nucleotides in the first sampling versus 5.1 adducts/10(8) nucleotides in the second), indicating very slow removal of the specific O-6-styrene adducts from DNA.