MONITORING AND MODELING OF EXPOSURE TO ETHANOL IN HAIRDRESSING SALONS

Personal exposure to solvents was studied among hairdressers in 28 sal ons in two regions during two seasons in The Netherlands. Ethanol was used as a marker for solvent exposure. Auxiliary data, such as salon a nd work characteristics, meteorological conditions and information on the presence of control measures, were collected during the measuremen ts. The average exposure to ethanol was almost a factor of 200 below t he occupational exposure limit, but differences in average ethanol con centrations up to a factor of 30 were present between salons. Exposure concentrations were significantly higher on Fridays than on other day s of the week. Contrary to expectation, exposures were somewhat lower in the spring than in the summer and in an urban than a semi-rural are a. An empirical statistical model based on exposure data collected dur ing the first measurement period appeared not to be valid for the enco untered circumstances in the second measurement period. An alternative classification scheme based on two easily obtainable salon and task c haracteristics was elaborated. This scheme will be applied in an ongoi ng epidemiological study on reproductive disorders among hairdressers and their offspring. (C) 1997 British Occupational Hygiene Society. Pu blished by Elsevier Science Ltd.