A NOVEL DEVICE FOR CAPTURING BREATH SAMPLES FOR SOLVENT ANALYSIS

We have developed a novel breath sampling device suitable for capturin g a portion of end-tidal air. This breath sample is then transferred o nto a Perkin Elmer automated thermal desorption (ATD) sampling tube wh ich is subsequently analysed by ATD-gas chromatography-mass spectromet ry (GCMS). The breath sampler has been evaluated in the laboratory, in brief field trials and in human volunteer studies. The method is sens itive with a typical detection limit of 1 mmol/l and reproducible with an overall coefficient of variation between 5% and 15% for collection and analysis of breath samples from volunteers. The field trials used the sampler to assess exposure to solvents in several industries incl uding the shoe manufacturing industry, the inks and coatings industry and at dry cleaning establishments. The sampler was found easy to use and reliable. Solvents detected include ethyl acetate (6.4-25.5 nmol/l ), propan-2-ol (3.4-39.3 nmol/l), 2-butanone (0-6.6 nmol/l) and tetrac hloroethene (0-557 nmol/l). The breath sampler was also used to monito r the elimination of solvents in breath from human volunteers after ex posure chamber studies. More than 500 breath samples have been analyse d from 24 volunteers in exposures to 10 different solvents (toluene, t rimethyl benzene, tetrachloroethene, tetrahydrofuran, acetone, propan- 2-ol, xylene, 2-butanone, 1-methoxy-2-propanol and n-hexane). The brea th sampler allowed the rapid and non-invasive collection of data on el imination of solvents. Published by Elsevier Science B.V.