Blood toluene as a biological index of environmental toluene exposure in the ?normal? population and in occupationally exposed workers immediately after exposure and 16 hours later

Abstract

Blood toluene was measured in a group of 100 workers occupationally exposed to a mean 8-h environmental toluene concentration of 128 micrograms/l (34 ppm), and in a group of 269 "normal" subjects without occupational exposure to toluene. The mean blood toluene of the workers at the end of the shift and the following morning, after 16 h, was 457 and 38 micrograms/l, respectively. The normal subjects had a blood toluene level of 1.1 micrograms/l. On the basis of the highly significant correlation between blood toluene and occupational exposure, it can be calculated that environmental toluene exposure of 188 and 377 micrograms/l (50 and 100 ppm) gives end-of-shift blood toluene levels of 690 and 1390 micrograms/l, respectively. The corresponding blood toluene levels on the following morning are 50 and 100 micrograms/l, respectively.

A Field Method for Sampling Toluene in End-Exhaled Air, as a Biomarker of Occupational Exposure: Correlation with Other Exposure Indices.

“…The ACGIH has recommended a value of 50 µg/L in venous blood, collected prior to last shift of workweek 3) , as a biological index equivalent to the TLV of 188 mg/m 3 toluene. The ACGIH proposal has been confirmed by many researches and is in accordance with laboratory simulation models of exposure [22][23][24][25][26][27] . The in vitro blood/air partition coefficient for toluene at 37°C reported by the ACGIH Documentation of the biological exposure indices was included between 11.2 and 15.6 28) .…”

The Central Nervous System and Exposure to Toluene: A Risk Characterization

“…It is unlikely that the end-of-shift blood levels of toluene in the female workers were abnormally elevated. Blood toluene levels are similar to the endof-shift levels determined by Brugnone et al (1995) in which the workers studied are presumed to have been of non-Asian descent. However, Brugnone and co-workers calculated a preshift blood level of 0.1 mg/liter 16 hr after prior exposure.…”

“…Toluene in venous blood has been reported as the most reliable and sensitive marker of exposure (Kawai et al, 1994;Brugnone et al, 1995). Mizunuma et al (1994) found blood toluene to be highly correlated to toluene in air at levels (<1 ppm) where hippuric acid was no longer useful.…”

Measurement of volatile organic compounds in human blood.

“…For all analytes that have been evaluated by both groups, the levels reported in the United States (44) are lower than the levels reported in Italy (17,25,35,36 Figure 3. Of the members of this population, 96% had blood levels that were above the detection limit of 73 ppt (ng/l), and 75% of those with detectable concentrations had blood levels of 1000 ppt or less.…”

“…These results demonstrate that for some VOCs, decontaminating the sample collection materials is critical if blood concentrations are to be determined accurately. Angerer et al (18) suggested that samples can be frozen at liquid nitrogen temperatures, but in most cases, samples have been stored at 40C (17,22,24). Freezing the samples will lyse the red blood cells and may change the equilibrium within the matrix.…”