Assessment of environmental and occupational exposures to butadiene as a model for risk estimation of petrochemical emissions

1,3-Butadiene (BD) is an important industrial chemical and environmental contaminant, e.g. in urban air, traffic exhausts and tobacco smoke. It has been shown to be genotoxic in vitro and in vivo and carcinogenic in rodents, mice being more sensitive than rats. The present study confirmed this species difference. Using micronuclei in erythrocytes or bone marrow as a marker, mice responded at an effective level of 50 p.p.m., while the highest ineffective level in rats was 500 p.p.m. (inhalation of BD for 5 days). A dose-dependent increase in N-terminal valine haemoglobin adducts was seen in both rats and mice, but the adduct levels in the latter species were on average five times higher. For the first time, specific N6-alkyldeoxyadenosine adducts were identified in lung and liver DNA of rats exposed to BD by inhalation. No significant difference in DNA adduct level was seen in lung tissue of rats and mice at similar exposure levels. Occupational exposure levels to BD in the European Process industry are variable, but generally < 1 p.p.m. Haemoglobin adduct levels were seen to be increased among the worker groups with higher potential exposure to BD (process work, bomb voiding and repair duties) as compared with adduct levels in less exposed workers in maintenance and the laboratory or control personnel. However, the N-terminal valine haemoglobin adducts measured in the workers were one to two orders of magnitude lower than extrapolated for the same exposure dose in mice. In the same workers no exposure-related effects were seen in the cytogenetic parametres studied, i.e. chromosomal aberrations, sister chromatid exchanges or micronuclei in peripheral blood lymphocytes, or in the Ras oncoprotein levels of plasma samples. The studies so far conducted suggest that human exposure at the levels seen in the present day process industry can be documented at the biological dose level using haemoglobin adduct measurement, but not at the biological effect level using cytogenetic biomarkers. In order to quantitate the human genotoxic risk of BD exposure more work needs to be done on the role of other active BD metabolites than 1,2-epoxy-3-butene and on the genetic polymorphisms controlling the variability of individual responses.