Background: Welding is a common industrial process associated with various health hazards associated with increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation that inturn cause genotoxicity and damages the genetic material. Objective: To investigate the inter individual variation of DNA damage and capacity of DNA repair proteins, genotoxic effects of welding workers associated with an occupational hazards in India. Materials and Methods: A case-control study was conducted amongst 200 welder and 200 normal healthy controls in Hyderabad. Data with respect to demographic characteristics was collected using a questionnaire. Blood samples were collected from all the subjects, DNA was isolated and XRCC1 genotyping of rs1799782 and rs25487 was carried by PCR-RFLP. Results and Discussion: Nearly 40% of the case are obese having BMI ≥23 Kg/m2. The percentage of smokers and alcoholics varied considerably between the groups. The genotype and the allele frequencies of rs1799782 and rs25487 differed significantly between the groups. Haplotype analysis revealed a correlation between four haplotypes of XRCC1 Arg194Trp and Arg399Gln polymorphisms with individuals exposed to welding fumes. Conclusions: These findings suggest that XRCC1 rs1799782 Arg/Trp heterozygous genotype plays a protective role while Arg/Gln and Gln/Gln demonstrates a predisposing role towards genotoxicity in welder
