URINARY STYRENE IN THE BIOLOGICAL MONITORING OF STYRENE EXPOSURE

The urinary excretion of styrene represents a promising indicator of e xposure to this solvent. Nevertheless extensive research under field c onditions is scant. In this investigation 214 styrene-exposed workers from 10 fiberglass-reinforced plastics factories were studied. Environ mental monitoring was performed by personal passive sampling. Blood st yrene and the urinary excretion of styrene and its main metabolites, m andelic acid (MA) and phenylglyoxylic acid (PGA), were measured. The c orrelation coefficient between the time-weighted average of environmen tal styrene and the mean urinary excretion of styrene was 0.88 (0.91 a fter logarithmic transformation), compared with the 0.82 and 0.78 of t he end-of-shift MA and PGA values, respectively. A high correlation (0 .86) was also found between styrene in the blood and urine. The result s, obtained under field conditions with a large group of exposed worke rs, confirm the usefulness of the urinary excretion of styrene as an e xposure index for the biological monitoring of styrene exposure.