Genetic risks and environmental surveillance: epidemiological aspects of monitoring industrial populations for environmental mutagens.

As industrial populations are exposed to new chemicals and other agents in their work environment, it becomes increasingly important to be able to ascertain any associated genetic risks. The characteristics of a desirable surveillance system for deleterious genetic effects are outlined and the existing or proposed surveillance systems for industrial populations are reviewed against these criteria. At present, monitoring for reproductive loss and infertility seems to be the technique best suited for surveillance of industrial populations. However, monitoring techniques based on these events do not directly assess mutagenicity. Since fetal death and infertility are strongly, but not exclusively, correlated with mutation, these methods can be considered as an early-warning system to indicate when and where more definitive studies are needed.