Long-term exposure to high air pollution induces cumulative DNA damages in traffic policemen

The specific effects of long-term exposure to high air pollution on human health and biological remain unclear. To explore the adverse health effects as well as biological mechanisms and biomarkers for durative exposure to air pollution, 183 traffic policemen and 88 office policemen were enrolled in this study. The concentration of PM2.5 in both the traffic and office policemen's working environments were obtained. Detailed personal questionnaires were completed and levels of inflammation, oxidative stress and DNA damage markers of all participants were analyzed in this study. The average PM2.5 concentration of the intersections of main roads and the offices of control group were 132.4±48.9μg/m3 and 50.80±38.6μg/m3, respectively. The traffic policemen, who stably exposed to at least 2 times higher PM2.5 in their work area as compared with the control group, have a median average duration of 7.00years, and average cumulative intersection duty time reached 8030h. No statistically significant differences in the levels of inflammation markers were observed between the traffic and office policemen. However, the DNA damage markers in traffic policemen shared significant positive correlation with cumulative intersection duty time and higher than those in the office policemen. Multiple linear regression analysis demonstrated that the increase of cumulative intersection duty time by 1h per day for one year was associated with the increase in 8-hydroxy-20-deoxyguanosine of 0.329% (95% CI: 0.249% to 0.409%), tail DNA of 0.051% (95% CI: 0.041% to 0.061%), micronucleus frequency of 0.036‰ (95% CI: 0.03‰ to 0.043‰), and a decrease in glutathione of 0.482% (95% CI: −0.652% to −0.313%). These findings suggest that long-term exposure to high air pollution could induce cumulative DNA damages, supporting the hypothesis that durative exposure to air pollution is associated with an increased risk of cancer. [Display omitted] •No significant difference in the levels of inflammation biomarkers between traffic and office policemen.•DNA damage biomarkers significantly increased and shared positive correlation with durative exposure time.•long-term exposure to high air pollution could induce cumulative DNA damage.•The results support the hypothesis that chronic exposure to air pollution associated with increased cancer risk.