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Ai-Lin Liu,¹ Wen-Qing Lu,¹ Zeng-Zhen Wang,¹ Wei-Hong Chen,¹ Wen-Hong Lu,¹ Jing Yuan,¹ Pei-Hong Nan,² Jian-Ya Sun,² Ya-Lin Zou,¹ Li-Hong Zhou,¹ Chi Zhang,¹ and Tang-Chun Wu¹

¹Department of Occupational and Environmental Health and Ministry of Education Key Lab for Environment and Health, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, People's Republic of China; ²Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Taiyuan Steel and Iron Limited Company, Taiyuan, People's Republic of China

Abstract
To investigate associations among occupational exposure to coke oven emissions (COEs) , oxidative stress, cytogenotoxic effects, change in the metabolizing enzyme glutathione S-transferase (GST) , and internal levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in coke oven workers, we recruited 47 male coke oven workers and 31 male control subjects from a coke oven plant in northern China. We measured the levels of 1-hydroxypyrene (1-OHP) and 8-hydroxy-2´-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) in urine, micronucleated binucleated cells (BNMNs) in peripheral blood lymphocyte, and GST in serum. Our results showed that the group exposed to COEs had significantly increased levels of 1-OHP [median 5.7 ; interquartile range (IQR) , 1.4-12.0 µmol/mol creatinine] compared with the control group (3 ; 0.5-6.4 µmol/mol creatinine) . In addition, the median levels (IQR) of 8-OHdG, BNMNs, and GST were markedly increased in the exposed [1.9 (1.4-15.4) µmol/mol creatinine ; 6 (2-8) per thousand ; 22.1 (14.9-31.2) U/L, respectively] compared with controls [1.3 (1.0-4.0) µmol/mol creatinine, 2 (0-4) per thousand ; and 13.1 (9.5-16.7) U/L, respectively]. These results appeared to be modified by smoking. However, multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that exposure to COEs had the highest odds ratio among variables analyzed and that smoking was not a significant confounder of the levels of studied biomarkers. Overall, the present findings suggest that COE exposure led to increased internal PAH burden, genetic damage, oxidative stress, and GST activity. The consequences of the changes in these biomarkers, such as risk of cancer, warrant further investigations. Key words: coke oven emissions, glutathione S-transferase, 8-hydroxy-2´-deoxyguanosine, 1-hydroxypyrene, micronuclei. Environ Health Perspect 114: 673-677 (2006) . doi:10.1289/ehp.8562 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 15 December 2005]

Address correspondence to W.-Q. Lu, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Department of Occupational and Environmental Health and Ministry of Education Key Lab for Environment and Health, Hangkong Rd. 13, 430030 Wuhan, P.R. China. Telephone: 86-27-8369-2715. Fax: 86-27-8369-2701. E-mail: luwq@mails.tjmu.edu.cn

We thank Q. Wei, Department of Epidemiology, University of Texas, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, for his critical review, scientific editing, and comments on the manuscript.

This study was supported by the National Key Basic Research and Development Program of China (grants 2002CB512902, 2002CB512905, and 2002CB512910) .

The authors declare they have no competing financial interests.

Received 5 August 2005 ; accepted 15 December 2005.