Environmental and biological monitoring of occupational formaldehyde exposure resulting from the use of products for hair straightening.
The evaluation of formaldehyde (FD) exposure in beauty salons, due to the use of hair straightening products, and its relation with genotoxicity biomarkers was performed in this study. Regardless of official recommendations, the inappropriate use of homemade hair creams has became a popular practice in Brazil, and high formaldehyde content in the "progressive straightening" creams can contain mutagens that could increase the incidence of neoplasia in those people who use them. Damage to DNA was assessed by conducting a micronuclei test (MNT) on buccal cells and the comet assay on heparinized venous blood samples. A total of 50 volunteers were recruited at six different beauty salons (labeled A to F). At two salons that used products that did not contain FD (salons D and E), environmental FD concentrations were 0.04 and 0.02 ppm. In contrast, the products used at salons A, B, C, and F contained 5.7, 2.61, 5.9, and 5.79% of FD, and these salons had environmental FD concentrations of 0.07, 0.14, 0.16, and 0.14 ppm, respectively. Comparison of the beauty salon workers from each of the six beauty salons revealed significant differences in urinary formic acid (FA) concentration before exposure (p = 0.016), urinary FA after exposure (p = 0.004), variation in FA concentration before and after exposure (p = 0.018), environmental FD concentration (p < 0.001), cytogenetic damage detected by the comet assay according to both damage index (p < 0.001) and frequency of damage (p < 0.001), and for karyorrhexis only according to the MNT (p = 0.001).
Laboratório de Análises Toxicológicas, Universidade Feevale, ERS 239, 2755, Vila Nova, Novo Hamburgo, 93352-000, Brazil. gipeteffi@gmail.com.
Giovana Piva
GP
Peteffi
Laboratório de Análises Toxicológicas, Universidade Feevale, ERS 239, 2755, Vila Nova, Novo Hamburgo, 93352-000, Brazil.
Marina Venzon
MV
Antunes
Laboratório de Análises Toxicológicas, Universidade Feevale, ERS 239, 2755, Vila Nova, Novo Hamburgo, 93352-000, Brazil.
Caroline
C
Carrer
Laboratório de Análises Toxicológicas, Universidade Feevale, ERS 239, 2755, Vila Nova, Novo Hamburgo, 93352-000, Brazil.
Eduarda Trevizani
ET
Valandro
Curso de Enfermagem, Faculdades Integradas de Taquara, Av. Oscar Martins Rangel, 4500 (ERS 115), Taquara, RS, Brazil.
Sílvia
S
Santos
Laboratório de Genética e Biologia Molecular, Universidade Feevale, ERS 239, 2755, Novo Hamburgo, 93352-000, Brazil.
Jéssica
J
Glaeser
Laboratório de Genética e Biologia Molecular, Universidade Feevale, ERS 239, 2755, Novo Hamburgo, 93352-000, Brazil.
Larissa
L
Mattos
Laboratório de Genética e Biologia Molecular, Universidade Feevale, ERS 239, 2755, Novo Hamburgo, 93352-000, Brazil.
Luciano Basso
LB
da Silva
Laboratório de Análises Toxicológicas, Universidade Feevale, ERS 239, 2755, Vila Nova, Novo Hamburgo, 93352-000, Brazil.
Rafael
R
Linden
D000328:Adult; D015415:Biomarkers; D001938:Brazil; D020552:Comet Assay; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D005557:Formaldehyde; D005561:Formates / Q000652:urine; D006203:Hair Preparations / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D015162:Micronucleus Tests; D009061:Mouth Mucosa; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000032:analysis
D015415:Biomarkers; D005561:Formates; D006203:Hair Preparations; C030544:formic acid; D005557:Formaldehyde
Cosmetic products; Environmental monitoring; Formaldehyde; Formic acid; Genotoxic damage; Hair straightening