Personal Exposures of Benzene treated Workers and a Simple Biological Monitoring

Abstract

A simple method of biological monitoring has been developed for occupational benzene exposure. Personal benzene exposure monitoring using a passive sampler and GC/FID was carried out on 74 workers from a benzene-treated company. Their urines were collected before and after work-shift. After treatment of urine samples using solid phase extraction (SPE), trans, trans-muconic acid (t, t-MA) concentration in the elute was analysed by HPLC. Correlation between benzene exposure (X: ppm) and urinary t, t-MA concentration (Y: mg/g・creatinine) for non-smokers was Y=0.948X+0.586 (r=0.798, P<0.01) and Y=0.885X+0.894 (r=0.871, P<0.01) for smokers, respectively. The t, t-MA concentration on 1 ppm TLV exposure to benzene was estimated as 1.5 and 1.8 (mg/g・creatinine) for non-smokers and smokers, respectively. These values are in agreement with some investigators. This indicates that our simple method for biological monitoring of benzene exposure can be of great service.