Primary DNA damages in taxi drivers with traffic related air pollution exposure: results of comet assay test

Introduction: Several studies have shown that DNA damages increase the risk of diseases such as cancer. One of the tests that used to assess the damage to DNA is Comet Assay. In this study, the initial damage caused by exposure to traffic-related air pollution was studied. Methods: In this analytic cross sectional study, 104 taxi drivers were selected in Yazd, Iran. Peripheral blood sampling was performed. Microscopic analysis was performed under 400 magnification fluorescent microscope. Imagej software was used for image analysis. Data were tested by Kolmogorov–Smirnov test and Mann–Whitney U-test. Correlation analysis was performed. Results: In this study, all the participants were male. The mean±SD of the age and experience of the study population was 45.8±11.59 and 11.31±8.67 years, respectively. There was no significant difference between smokers and non-smokers in comet parameters. There was no significant correlation between Comet parameters and workload. There was direct and significant correlation between all parameters of comet. There was a significant correlation between tail intensity parameter and age after elimination of the confounding the effect of smoking. Conclusions: In the results of the present study, there was not shown any genetic damages in taxi drivers exposed to the traffic related air pollution. Also, there is no significant relationship between these damages and smoking.