Sensory eye irritation in humans exposed to mixtures of volatile organic compounds

Eight subjects participated in a controlled eyes-only exposure study of hum an sensory irritation in ocular mucosal tissue. The authors investigated do se-response properties and the additive effects of three mixtures of volati le organic compounds. The dose-response relationships for these mixtures sh owed increases in response intensity as concentration increased, Replicatio n of exposure did not result in significantly different dose- response rela tionships. Moreover, the result implied that components of the three mixtur es interacted additively to produce ocular irritation, a result referred to as simple agonism. Finally, the authors addressed the comparability of two methods to measure sensory irritation intensity (visual analogue scale and a comparative scale). The results indicated that the two rating methods pr oduced highly comparable results.