Genetic damage in coal and uranium miners.
Mining has a direct impact on the environment and on the health of miners and is considered one of the most hazardous occupations worldwide. Miners are exposed to several occupational health risks, including genotoxic substances, which may cause adverse health effects, such as cancer. This review summarizes the relation between DNA damage and mining activities, focusing on coal and uranium miners. The search was performed using electronic databases, including original surveys reporting genetic damage in miners. Additionally, a temporal bibliometric analysis was performed using an electronic database to create a map of cooccurrence terms. The majority of studies were performed with regard to occupational exposure to coal, whereas genetic damage was assessed mainly through chromosomal aberrations (CAs), micronuclei (MNs) and comet assays. The bibliometric analysis demonstrated associations of coal exposure with silicosis and pneumoconiosis, uranium miners with lung cancer and tumors and some associated factors, such as age, smoking, working time and exposure to radiation. Significantly higher DNA damage in miners compared to nonexposed groups was observed in most of the studies. The timeline reveals that classic biomarkers (comet assay, micronucleus test and chromosomal aberrations) are still important tools to assess genotoxic/mutagenic damage in occupationally exposed miners; however, newer studies concerning genetic polymorphisms and epigenetic changes in miners are being conducted. A major challenge is to investigate further associations between miners and DNA damage and to encourage further studies with miners of other types of ores.
['da Silva|Flavio Manoel Rodrigues|FMR|', 'Tavella|Ronan Adler|RA|', 'Fernandes|Caroline Lopes Feijo|CLF|', 'Dos Santos|Marina|M|']
D000818:Animals D002869:Chromosome Aberrations D003031:Coal D003032:Coal Mining D020552:Comet Assay D004249:DNA Damage D006801:Humans D048629:Micronuclei, Chromosome-Defective D015162:Micronucleus Tests D000067572:Miners D016273:Occupational Exposure D014501:Uranium
Coal Uranium Mining Genotoxicity Occupational exposure