URINARY 1-NAPHTHOL AND 1-PYRENOL AS INDICATORS OF EXPOSURE TO COAL-TAR PRODUCTS

Chemical exposure of assemblers handling creosote-impregnated wood and of a single worker chiselling coal tar pitch layer was assessed by me asuring airborne naphthalene and various polycyclic aromatic hydrocarb ons (PAHs), and by measurement of urinary excretion of 1-naphthol and 1-pyrenol. The sum concentration of PAHs and of 4-6 aromatic ring-cont aining PAHs were high, 440 mu g/m(3) and 290 mu g/m(3), respectively, when chiselling. In the assembler's workplace, the PAH concentrations were about 1/50 of this value. Regarding airborne naphthalene concentr ations the situation was reversed (assemblers, 1000 mu g/m(3); chisell er, 160 mu g/m(3)). Correspondingly, the assemblers' urinary 1-napthol concentrations were 15-20 times higher than those of the chiseller. T he urinary 1-pyrenol concentration of the chiseller was 2-4 times high er than among the assemblers. As the estimated pyrene inhalation doses among the assemblers could account for only about 2%-25% of the 24-h pyrenol excretion in urine, the skin was presumably the main route of uptake. For an assessment of the exposure to PAHs, air measurements, m onitoring of metabolites in urine and preferably also data on the comp osition of the skin-contaminating product are needed.