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Background: The ever-increasing use of air travel suggests the need to study health risks in flight personnel, by means of correct exposure assessment and evaluation of genotoxic effects., Objectives: After taking into consideration occupational risk and possible confounding factors, we studied 48 pilots and flight technicians engaged on long-haul flights together with a control group of 48 ground staff, with the aim of evaluating genotoxic effects of cosmic radiation exposure. On 36/48 subjects we also evaluated the presence of DNA damage (single and double strand breaks)., Methods: Traditional cytogenetics, the micronucleus test and FISH analysis, were used to study chromosome aberrations, micronuclei and translocations. The Comet test was used to analyze direct DNA damage (single and double strand breaks)., Results: Our findings indicated a significant increase in gaps and breaks and a significant increase of frequency ratio for translocations in pilots compared to controls, but revealed a non-significant difference in unstable aberrations and micronuclei. The Comet test did not show any significant increase of DNA damage in flight personnel with respect to ground staff., Conclusions: The possibility of a correlation between translocations and cancer risk emphasizes the need to adopt preventive measures for air flight personnel.

The dangerous effects of phototherapy have been matter of discussion in recent years. In order to evaluate its in vitro action on the human DNA, the authors have performed the karyotypic analysis on 20 cultures of lymphocytes. In different times 16 cultures have been exposed to the action of a "blue light" fluorescent lamp, commonly used for the treatment of neonatal jaundice. The authors have not evidenced any morphological or numerical change of the karyotype in any of the cultures.

Chromosome fragmentation counts on irradiated human marrow cells were used to determine the radioprotective effect of taurine. The results were unifavourable in the sense that the number of fragmentations observed in cultures to which taurine had been added was only slightly less than that in the control cultures.

A brief explanation of the dangers inherent in the indiscriminate use of ionising radiations and a description of the modality of action of cell radiations are followed by an account of the significance of lesions of the genetic inheritance. Data obtained from the irradiation of human chromosomes are also presented. In these experiments, the effects of scalar doses on in vitro peripheral blood cultures and 'in vivo' on patients irradiated in the course of treatment of the lumbosacral area were studied. The radioprotective activity of various pharmacological agents was measured by means of an original method and the results obtained are discussed.