Micronucleus Formation Induced by Biomass Burning Particles Derived From Biomass Burning Induce High Micronucleus Frequency in Tradescantia pallida Assay (TRAD-MN)

Manual harvesting is usually done after to sugar cane burning which is responsible for seasonal emission of air pollutants in Brazil and it is believed to be responsible for deleterious health effects in exposed populations. The mutagenic potential of sugar cane burning harvesting particulate and particle surrogates of residual oil fly ash (ROFA) were evaluated in assays measuring micronuclei (MN) in the pollen mother cells of Tradescantia pallida (TRAD-MN). Micronuclei frequencies in TRAD-MN to sugar cane burning residues (SCBR) at doses 0.3 and 0.03 mg/mL were respectively 2.18 ± 0.35 and 5.53 ± 1.04, whereas to ROFA from incinerator and ROFA from an electrostatic precipitator installed in one of the chimneys of a steel plant, MN frequencies were, respectively, 3.43 ± 0.7 and 4.90 ± 1.07. Significant differences were detected among the groups (p < 0.001), demonstrating that SCBR was at least as genotoxic as the fossil fuel derived particles. The results suggest that the burning process to harvest sugar cane should be better controlled.