atmosphere Article Chemometric Study of the Correlation between Human Exposure to Benzene and PAHs and Urinary Excretion of Oxidative Stress Biomarkers Flavia Buonaurio 1, Enrico Paci 2, Daniela Pigini 2, Federico Marini 1 , Lisa Bauleo 3 , Carla Ancona 3 and Giovanna Tranfo 2,* 1 Department of Analytical Chemistry, Sapienza University, Piazzale Aldo Moro, 5, 00185 Rome, Italy; fl
[email protected] (F.B.);
[email protected] (F.M.) 2 INAIL Research, Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Epidemiology and Hygiene, Via di Fontana Candida 1, 00078 Monte Porzio Catone (RM), Italy;
[email protected] (E.P.);
[email protected] (D.P.) 3 Department of Epidemiology Lazio Regional Health Service, Via Cristoforo Colombo, 112, 00154 Rome, Italy;
[email protected] (L.B.);
[email protected] (C.A.) * Correspondence:
[email protected] Received: 29 October 2020; Accepted: 8 December 2020; Published: 11 December 2020 Abstract: Urban air contains benzene and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) which have carcinogenic properties. The objective of this paper is to study the correlation of exposure biomarkers with biomarkers of nucleic acid oxidation also considering smoking. In 322 subjects, seven urinary dose biomarkers were analyzed for benzene, pyrene, nitropyrene, benzo[a]pyrene, and naphthalene exposure, and four effect biomarkers for nucleic acid and protein oxidative stress. Chemometrics was applied in order to investigate the existence of a synergistic effect for the exposure to the mixture and the contribution of active smoking. There is a significant difference between nicotine, benzene and PAH exposure biomarker concentrations of smokers and non-smokers, but the difference is not statistically significant for oxidative stress biomarkers.