Exposure to volatile organic compounds for individuals with occupations associated with potential exposure to motor vehicle exhaust and/or gasoline vapor emissions

Workers who work near volatile organic compounds (VOCs) source(s), motor ve hicle exhausts and/or gasoline vapor emissions, are suspected to be exposed to highly-elevated VOC levels during their work-time. This study confirmed this suspicion and evaluated the work-time exposure VOCs for traffic polic e officers, parking garage attendants, service station attendants, roadside storekeepers and underground storekeepers, by measuring the concentrations of six aromatic VOCs in workplace air, or personal air and breath samples. For nearly all target VOCs, the post-work breath concentrations of the wor kers were slightly or significantly higher than the pre-work breath concent rations, depending on the compound and occupation. Furthermore, both the pr e- and post-work breath concentrations of the workers showed elevated level s compared with a control group of college students. The post-work breath c oncentrations were significantly correlated with the personal air concentra tions, while the pre-work breath concentrations were not. Smoking workers w ere not always exposed to higher aromatic VOC levels than non-smoking worke rs. The breath and personal air concentrations for all the target compounds were both higher for underground parking garage attendants than for ground -level parking attendants. For all the target compounds except toluene, sto rekeepers exhibited similar levels of exposure for all store types. Print s hopkeepers recorded the highest toluene exposure. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.