OXIDATION DAMAGE IN BRICK ARTISANS EXPOSED DURING THE PRODUCTION PROCESS IN THE CITY OF CHIHUAHUA CITY, MEXICO

Informal, handmade brick production in Mexico and Latin America provides main raw materials for one of the most important industries in the area: construction. Such process presents unsafe occupational practices in the baking of the product and exposition of the artisans to emissions, aggravated by the lack of work hygiene habits and protection measures.

The objective was to establish the levels of oxidant damage and antioxidant capacity in occupationally exposed handmade brick production workers in a Chihuahua city community, in accordance to both documented emission hazard related to this activity, and the socially perceived health risk that black smoke activities represent, the latter contributing to the occasional relocation of these workers to the outskirts of the growing city.

Two groups of male gender individuals were studied: group I that is formed by 19 clinically healthy individuals and group II that is formed by 19 occupationally exposed individuals working the process of handmade brick production in the desert area.

Both groups had their clinical conditions assessed (anthropometric measures, arterial blood pressure, blood chemistry, lipid profile and general urine test); total antioxidant capacity and oxidative damage like lipoperoxidation were assessed as antioxidant system. Group II individuals showed musculoskeletal, respiratory and ocular disorders, possibly related to their work activity. The chemical-clinical markers were found normal in both patient groups; regarding total antioxidant capacity a statistically significant decrease was found (T test p<0.05) for group II compared to group I.

Occupationally exposed individuals showed diminished total antioxidant capacity, leading to conclude this patient group is subject to increases in oxidative stress from a deficiency in antioxidant agents, which causes an increase in damage to lipids. Therefore, we can assume cellular damage is latent and carries the risk of becoming more evident as exposure time grows bigger, finally leading to possible systemic and cellular damage.