During coal surface mining, several activities such as drilling, blasting, loading, and transport produce large quantities of particulate matter (PM) that is directly emitted into the atmosphere. Occupational exposure to this PM has been associated with an increase of DNA damage, but there is a scarcity of data examining the impact of these industrial operations in cytogenetic endpoints frequency and cancer risk of potentially exposed surrounding populations. In this study, we used a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) approach and Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) methods to perform a spatial and statistical analysis to explore whether exposure to PM2.5 and PM10 pollution, and additional factors, including the enrichment of the PM with inorganic elements, contribute to cytogenetic damage in residents living in proximity to an open-pit coal mining area. Results showed a spatial relationship between exposure to elevated concentrations of PM2.5, PM10 and micronuclei frequency in binucleated (MNBN) and mononucleated (MNMONO) cells. Active pits, disposal, and storage areas could be identified as the possible emission sources of combustion elements. Mining activities were also correlated with increased concentrations of highly enriched elements like S, Cu and Cr in the atmosphere, corroborating its role in the inorganic elements pollution around coal mines. Elements enriched in the PM2.5 fraction contributed to increasing of MNBN but seems to be more related to increased MNMONO frequencies and DNA damage accumulated in vivo. The combined use of GIS and IDW methods could represent an important tool for monitoring potential cancer risk associated to dynamically distributed variables like the PM.
Keywords: Coal mining; GIS; IDW; Micronuclei; Particulate matter.
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