In recent years, the use of pesticides in agriculture has been steadily increasing, and associations between exposure to agricultural chemicals and DNA damage and cancer have been reported. Brazil is one of the world leaders in pesticide use; however, studies that evaluate the impact of pesticide exposure on cancer incidence and mortality are very scarce in the Brazilian population. The alkaline comet assay and the chromosome aberration (CA) test were used to evaluate primary DNA damage in the peripheral blood lymphocytes of workers exposed to a complex mixture of pesticides in two small rural communities in the municipalities of Tianguá and Ubajara, located in the western part of Ceará State (Northeast Brazil), which are among the largest agricultural areas of the state. The comet assay showed that the damage index and damage frequency observed in the exposed groups were significantly higher in relation to the controls (P < 0.05). On the other hand, no differences were detected regarding structural and numerical CAs in the communities evaluated. Additionally, the observed levels of DNA strand breaks and frequencies of CAs, stratified for exposure time, were not statistically different for individuals of either rural community. Our results suggest that the damages caused by pesticides in our study area were not great enough to induce permanent mutations or to interfere with mitotic apparatus formation; minimal pesticide damages could have undergone cellular repair, explaining the absence of structural and numerical CAs.
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