To evaluate personal exposures of volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) in different painting workplaces, continuous VOCs concentrations were recorded using 2 types of portable direct-reading instruments with semiconductor gas (SG) sensor and photo ionization detector (PID). The VOCs were also sampled using portable pumps with charcoal tubes and analyzed by gas chromatography with flame ionization detector. In addition to those devices, the eyeshot video was recorded from head mounted camera and the digitized video clips were combined with continuous VOCs recording data on personal computer. There were eight volunteer workers participated in this study. The continuous recordings showed peaks of the total VOCs concentrations under occupational exposure limits. The video exposure monitoring also identified higher level exposure of spray painting worker with his back to the ventilating opening. These results suggest that the portable VOCs monitoring with SG and PID provides valuable information of VOCs concentration fluctuation to evaluate personal exposure in the workplace.

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