['“ty', ' ', ' ', ' ', 'Toxicology', 'Letters', '———————eee', 'www', 'elsevier.com/locate/toxlet', ' ', 'Toxicology', 'Letters', '108', '(1999)', '259-265', 'Biological', 'monitoring', 'of', 'bidi', 'industry', 'workers', 'occupationally', 'exposed', 'to', 'tobacco', 'Rajani', 'A.', 'Bhisey', '*,', 'Aparna', 'N.', 'Bagwe,', 'Manoj', 'B.', 'Mahimkar,', 'Shama', 'C.', 'Buch', 'Carcinogenesis', 'Division,', 'Cancer', 'Research', 'Institute,', 'Mumbai,', 'India', 'Accepted', '19', 'February', '1999', ' ', 'Abstract', 'Ambient', 'and', 'biological', 'monitoring', 'was', 'undertaken', 'among', 'tobacco', 'processors', 'who', 'are', 'chronically', 'exposed', 'to', 'tobacco', 'particulates', 'via', 'nasopharyngeal', 'and', 'cutaneous', 'routes.', 'Ambient', 'monitoring', 'revealed', 'that', 'the', 'inspirable', 'dust', 'concentration', 'was', '150-fold', 'higher', 'in', 'the', 'tobacco', 'factory', 'than', 'in', 'the', 'control', 'environment,', 'and', 'was', 'associated', 'with', 'chronic', 'bronchitis', 'in', 'workers.', 'Increased', 'systemic', 'exposure', 'to', 'tobacco', 'constituents', 'was', 'evident', 'from', 'the', 'high', 'levels', 'of', 'cotinine,', 'thioethers,', 'promutagens', 'and', 'direct', 'acting', 'mutagens', 'in', 'workers’', 'urine.', 'The', 'mean', 'glutathione', 'level', 'and', 'glutathione', 'S-transferase', 'activity', 'were', 'significantly', 'lower', 'in', 'the', 'peripheral', 'blood', 'lymphocytes', 'of', 'workers;', 'however,', 'the', 'frequency', 'of', 'the', 'GSTM1', 'null', 'allele', 'was', 'similar', 'to', 'that', 'in', 'controls.', 'A', 'significant', 'increase', 'in', 'chromosomal', 'damage', 'was', 'noted', 'in', 'target', 'and', 'non-target', 'cells', 'of', 'tobacco', 'processors.', 'In', 'view', 'of', 'the', 'association', 'between', 'tobacco', 'use', 'and', 'several', 'non-communicable', 'diseases,', 'the', 'findings', 'of', 'the', 'present', 'study', 'indicate', 'an', 'urgent', 'need', 'to', 'minimize', 'tobacco', 'exposure', 'among', 'the', 'processors.', '©', '1999', 'Elsevier', 'Science', 'Ireland', 'Ltd.', 'All', 'rights', 'reserved.', 'Keywords:', 'Bidi', 'tobacco;', 'Occupation;', 'Mutagenicity,', 'Genotoxicity', ' ', '1.', 'Introduction', 'Tobacco', 'is', 'perhaps', 'the', 'most', 'widely', 'used', 'car-', 'cinogen', 'known', 'to', 'mankind.', 'Habitual', 'users', 'of', 'tobacco', 'also', 'run', 'an', 'elevated', 'risk', 'for', 'cardiovascu-', 'lar', 'and', 'respiratory', 'diseases,', 'thus', 'adversely', 'affect-', 'ing', 'the', 'health', 'of', 'a', 'large', 'proportion', 'of', 'humanity', '(International', 'Agency', 'for', 'Research', 'on', 'Cancer,', '1985,', '1986).', 'Bidi', 'industry', 'workers', 'form', 'another', ' ', '*', 'Corresponding', 'author.', 'Present', 'address:', 'Carcinogenesis', 'Division,', 'Cancer', 'Research', 'Institute,', 'Tata', 'Memorial', 'Centre,', 'Parel,', 'Mumbai', '400', '012,', 'India.', 'Fax:', '+', '91-22-4146089,', 'E-mail', 'address:', 'criv@soochak', 'nest.ernetin', '(R.A.', 'Bhisey)', 'group', 'that', 'reccives', 'considerable', 'exposure', 'to', 'to-', 'bacco,', 'but', 'about', 'whom', 'information', 'is', 'very', 'scanty.', 'In', 'India,', 'the', 'vast', 'majority', 'of', 'rural', 'and', 'urban', 'smokers', 'use', '‘bidis’,', 'which', 'are', 'indigenous', 'filterless', 'version', 'of', 'cigarettes.', 'To', 'cater', 'to', 'this', 'demand,', 'the', 'bidi', 'industry', 'provides', 'a', 'livelihood', 'to', 'over', 'three', 'million', 'people', 'engaged', 'in', 'tobacco', 'cul-', 'tivation,', 'processing', 'and', 'bidi', 'rolling', '(aisani,', '1989).', 'The', 'work', 'environment', 'in', 'tobacco', 'process-', 'ing', 'factories', 'is', 'heavily', 'laden', 'with', 'fine', 'dust', 'and', 'particulates', 'of', 'tobacco,', 'causing', 'considerable', 'ex-', 'posure', 'to', 'workers', 'by', 'nasopharyngeal', 'and', 'cuta-', 'neous', 'routes.', 'Although', 'the', 'mutagenic', 'and', 'skin', 'tumor', 'promoting', 'potential', 'of', 'bidi', 'tobacco', 'have', '0378-4274/99/$', '-', 'sec', 'front', 'matter', '©', '1999', 'Elsevier', 'Science', 'Ireland', 'Ltd.', 'All', 'rights', 'reserved.', 'PII:', '$0378-4274(99)00097-1', ' ', 'zl69g', 'ebrcs', ' ']