HUMAN EXPOSURE TO VOLATILE ORGANIC-COMPOUNDS - A COMPARISON OF ORGANIC VAPOR MONITORING BADGE LEVELS WITH BLOOD-LEVELS

We undertook a study in Albany, New York, to investigate whether volat ile organic compounds (VOCs) were measurable in the blood and in the b reathing-zone air of people exposed to gasoline fumes and automotive e xhaust. We sampled blood of 40 subjects, placed organic vapor badges o n 40 subjects, and obtained personal breathing-zone samples from 24 su bjects. We limited this analysis to 19 subjects who wore the organic v apor badges for at least 5 h. VOC levels, as determined by the organic vapor badges, were highly correlated with blood levels of these same compounds. Using detection in blood as the gold standard, we found the badges to be more sensitive than conventional charcoal tube samples i n detecting low levels of methyl tert-butyl ether (0.60 vs 0.08), tolu ene (0.95 vs 0.64), and o-xylene (0.85 vs 0.64). In this study, organi c vapor badges provided data on VOC exposure that correlated with bloo d assay results. These organic vapor badges might provide a convenient means of determining human exposure to VOCs in epidemiologic studies. health officials in investigating whether exposure to methyl tert-but yl ether (MTBE) in fuels was measurable in people occupationally expos ed and people not occupationally exposed (Mannino et al. 1993) to low concentrations of this chemical. Albany was selected as the site for t his investigation because MTBE is used in only small (generally less t hat 5% by weight) concentrations in this area. As part of this study, participants' exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) was determ ined via organic vapor badges and personal breathing zone charcoal tub e samples on the same day that their blood was collected for VOC level measurement. We wanted to determine how well the VOC levels from the organic vapor badges and charcoal tube samples correlated with VOC lev els measured in the blood.