Analysis of biomarkers in a Czech population exposed to heavy air pollution. Part I: bulky DNA adducts

The health of human populations living in industrial regions is negatively affected by exposure to environmen-tal air pollutants. In this study, we investigated the impact of air pollution on a cohort of subjects living in Ostrava, a heavily polluted industrial region and compared it with a cohort of individuals from the relatively clean capital city of Prague. This study consisted of three sampling periods differing in the concentrations of major air pollutants (win-ter 2009, summer 2009 and winter 2010). During all sam-pling periods, the study subjects from Ostrava region were exposed to significantly higher concentrations of benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) and benzene than the subjects in Prague as measured by personal monitors. Pollution by B[a]P, par-ticulate matter of aerodynamic diameter <2.5 µm (PM2.5) and benzene in the Ostrava region measured by stationary monitors was also higher than in Prague, with the excep-tion of PM2.5 in summer 2009 when concentration of the pollutant was significantly elevated in Prague. To evaluate DNA damage in subjects from both locations we deter-mined the levels of bulky DNA adducts in peripheral blood lymphocytes using the