Wk. Jo et Kw. Pack, Utilization of breath analysis for exposure estimates of benzene associated with active smoking, ENVIR RES, 83(2), 2000, pp. 180-187
This study included three different experiments for benzene exposures assoc
iated with active smoking. In the first experiment, the mean exhaled breath
benzene concentrations measured 1 min after an active smoke ranged from 58
.1 to 81.3 mu g/m(3), depending on the commercial cigarette brand, while th
ose measured prior to an active smoke ranged from 15.9 to 19.2 mu g/m(3). T
he postexposure breath concentrations were much higher than the mean breath
concentrations reported by some previous studies whose exposure conditions
and postsampling times were not controlled. Similar to some previous decay
studies conducted for different volatile organic compounds in different mi
croenvironments, our second experiment showed that there was a rapid fall i
n the breath concentration and thereafter the decrease was much slower. One
-compartment half-lives ranged from 30.1 to 57.8 min. Two-compartment half-
lives ranged from 3.2 to 25.7 min for the first half-life and from 67 to 46
2 min for the second half-life. In the final repeated smoke experiment cond
ucted with two specified time intervals, the breath concentrations showed i
ncreasing trends for both the pre- and the post exposure concentrations, wi
th few exceptions. However, none of the changes mere statistically signific
ant at P<0.05. (C) 2000 Academic Press.