Cytogenetic effects in lymphocytes of formaldehyde workers of a paper factory.

Chromosome analyses were carried out in lymphocytes from 20 male papermakers exposed to formaldehyde (FA) for 2-30 years. 20 male workers from the same factory but without FA exposure served as controls. In the exposed group a significantly increased incidence of dicentrics or dicentrics and ring chromosomes was observed for 11 workers currently employed as supervisors. In contrast to 9 operators their total mean exposure time to FA was about 2.5 times longer. No significantly higher SCE values were found for smoking or for non-smoking FA workers compared with the corresponding control subjects.