An attempt to search the health status of garage workers---A neglected part in India

In many developing countries awareness of occupational hazards is still in the budding stage. The objective of this study is to find out the occupation related health hazards in automobile repair shops specially for those workers who randomly handled toxic waste water during battery wash, car wash, and oil grease wash. This water is polluted by lead and cadmium and in the course of their work they are exposed to these two exogenous elements which are agents of DNA damage. From the study area lead (Pb) , Cadmium (Cd) concentration of garage waste water was estimated. whose, whole blood Pb and Cd as well as Selenium(Se) concentration is estimated by Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption and by ED-XRF technique both in control and occupationally exposed workers, and DNA damage was measured by single cell gel electrophoresis (alkaline comet assay). Results shows there is a significant (p<0.001) difference between the blood lead and cadmium concentration in control and workers. Workers were also found suffering from Se deficiency and this may be the cumulative reason for their higher level of DNA damage (significantly high, p<0.001) and put them in more susceptible condition.