Chromosome aberrations in workers of beach sand mineral industries

Beach Sand Mining (BSM) is a profitable industry earning a sizable income for the country by way of foreign exchange. The Indian coast is rich in rare earths such as ilmenite, rutile, leucoxene, zircon, garnet and sillimanite, and is invariably associated with radioactive monazite. Due to the nature of the separation processes involved and the manual handling, workers in these factories are continuously being exposed to suspended particles containing naturally occurring radioactive materials. An attempt was made to estimate DNA damage using a chromosome aberration assay to monitor radiation effects in workers of BSM industries in India. The study group comprised 27 BSM workers and 20 controls. Percentage yields of dicentrics, acentric fragments and chromatid breaks observed in the control group were 0.058 ± 0.017, 0.073 ± 0.03 and 0.22 ± 0.112, respectively. Percentage yields of dicentrics + centric rings, acentric fragments and chromatid breaks observed in the BSM group were 0.029 ± 0.01 (P value 0.19), 0.24 ± 0.06 (P value 0.006) and 0.455 ± 0.06 (P value 0.0004), respectively. Elevated levels of fragments and chromatid aberrations are suggestive of low-dose radiation effects and also chemically-induced DNA damage.