Ozone Emitted During Copying Process -A Potential Cause of Pathological Oxidative Stress and Potential Oxidative Damage in the Bodies of Operators

Key words: 
• Ozone /
• Oxidation /
• Lipoperoxidation /
• Antioxidant /
• Antioxidase /
• Oxidative stress /
• Oxidativedamage /
• Copying /
• Copying operators /
• Copier

Abstract: Objective To estimate the impact of copying on the indoor air quality, and to investigatewhether ozone emitted during such a process induces pathological oxidative stress and potentialoxidative damage in the bodies of operators. Methods 67 copying operators (CO) and 67 healthyvolunteers (HV) were enrolled in a random control study, in which levels of lipoperoxide (LPO) inplasma and erythrocytes, and levels of vitamin C (VC), vitamin E (VE) and β-carotene (β-CAR) inplasma as well as activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathioneperoxidase (GPX) in erythrocytes were determined by spectrophotometric methods. ResultsCompared with the HV group, the average values of LPO in plasma and erythrocytes in the CO groupwere significantly increased (P＜0.0001), while those of VC, VE and β-CAR in plasma as well asthose of SOD, CAT and GPX in erythrocytes in the CO group were significantly decreased(P＜0.0001). Pearson product-moment correlation analysis showed that with increase of ozone level incopying sites and duration of exposure to ozone, the values of LPO in plasma and erythrocytes in thebodies of operators were gradually increased,while those of VC, VE, β-CAR, SOD, CAT and GPXwere decreased in the same manner. Odds ratio (OR) of risk of biochemical parameters reflectingpotential oxidative damage of the copying operators ranged from 4.440 to 13.516, and 95 % CI of ORwas from 2.113 to 34.061. Reliability coefficient (α) of the biochemical parameters used to reflect thepotential oxidative damage of the operators was 0.8156, standardized item α=0.9929, P＜0.0001.Conclusion Findings in the present study suggest that there exist a series of free radical chainreactions and pathological oxidative stress induced by high dose ozone in the operators, therebycausing potential oxidative and lipoperoxidative damages in their bodies.