Effects of short-term exposure to printing shop particles on inflammatory responses and DNA damage in healthy young adults.

Abstract

Considering the increasingly demand for printing in daily life, more attention should be paid to the health risks of printer emissions to consumers. This study designed a two-stage cross-over study with 20 volunteers to investigate whether the short-term exposure to printing shop particles (PSPs) could cause inflammatory responses and genetic damage in healthy young volunteers. According to the study, short-term exposure to high level of PSPs caused the elevation of eotaxin and TNF-α levels in serum, indicating PSPs exposure led to the inflammation in healthy subjects. However, no significant changes of the urine 8-OH-dG was observed after PSPs exposure and there was no significant difference of micronucleus frequency in peripheral blood lymphocytes of volunteers between the high-exposure-level and low-exposure-level period. Our study suggested that short-term exposure to high level of PSPs could cause mild inflammatory responses but no DNA damage in healthy subjects. More attention should be paid to the health hazards of the regular use of laser printers in daily life.