EVALUATION OF STYRENE IN AIR BY THERMAL-DESORPTION GAS-CHROMATOGRAPHY

A method to quantify the environmental styrene of occupationally expos ed workers has been established. A diffusive sampler, that can be anal ysed by using thermal desorption-gas chromatography, was used to adsor b styrene from the ambient environment. A laboratory study was carried out to evaluate the performance of the sampler and to determine the s tyrene uptake rate, following the criteria adopted in European Standar d 848. Finally, the proposed method has been checked under real condit ions by evaluating styrene levels from an exposed population. There we re no significant differences with the results obtained by other sampl ing methods. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.