Beach Sand Mining (BSM) is a profitable industry earning a sizable income for the country
by way of foreign exchange. The Indian coast is rich in rare earths such as ilmenite,
rutile, leucoxene, zircon, garnet and sillimanite, and is invariably associated with
radioactive monazite. Due to the nature of the separation processes involved and the
manual handling, workers in these factories are continuously being exposed to suspended
particles containing naturally occurring radioactive materials. An attempt was made to
estimate DNA damage using a chromosome aberration assay to monitor radiation effects in
workers of BSM industries in India. The study group comprised 27 BSM workers and 20
controls. Percentage yields of dicentrics, acentric fragments and chromatid breaks
observed in the control group were 0.058 ± 0.017, 0.073 ± 0.03 and 0.22 ± 0.112,
respectively. Percentage yields of dicentrics + centric rings, acentric fragments and
chromatid breaks observed in the BSM group were 0.029 ± 0.01 (P value 0.19), 0.24 ± 0.06
(P value 0.006) and 0.455 ± 0.06 (P value 0.0004), respectively. Elevated levels of
fragments and chromatid aberrations are suggestive of low-dose radiation effects and also
chemically-induced DNA damage.