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KMID : 0381319880270020004
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Korean Journal of Occupational Health
1988 Volume.27 No. 2 p.4 ~ p.11
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Urinary Excretion of Hippuric Acid and o-Cresol and Subjective Symptoms Among Workers Occupationally Exposed to Toluene
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Abstract
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Toluene is the most popular solvent in industry. The biological effects of toluene can be described as irritation in the eyes and nose, and depression of the central nervous system. Urinay hippuric acid is recommended for the biological monitoring of occupational exposure to toluene.
Authors investigated hippuric acid and o-cresol in the urine collected at the end of the shift, as well as subjective symptoms using the questionnaires among one bundred and seventy-three shoe-factory wokers exposed to toluene and 65 non-exposed(control) workers. Time-weighted average (TWA) concentration of toluene exposure was measured by carbon felf dosimeter, individually.
The mean TWA concentration of toluene was 77.7±51.4 ppm(range:7.4~324.3 ppm), and 56 workers were exposed to the levels higher than 100 ppm that is recommended threshold limit value by ACGIH. Hippuric acid in the urine of control and exposed group were 207.2±172.9 ㎎/g creatinine (mean±SD) and 951.9±727.8 ㎎/g creatinine, respectively. o-Cresol in the urine of control and exposed group were 30.8±29.1 ㎍/g creatinine and 778.2±766.6 ㎍/g creatinine, respectively.
Correlation coefficients between TWA concentration of toluene and urinary metabolites after correction for creatinine were 0.684(P＜0.001) for hippuric acid and 0.629(P＜0.001) for o-Cresol, respectively. Correlation coefficient between hippuric acid and o-Cresol was 0.579(P＜0.001). Frequency of subjective symptoms using the questionnaires were rather high especially in the items of irritation of eyes and nose, and in the symptoms of central nervous system such as dizziness, heavy feeling in the head and headache.
It was suggested that urinary excretion of hippuric acid was the better index for the biological monitoring of toluene exposure than that of o-cresol. However, in consideration of the reliability of questionnaire method for subjective symptoms of toluene exposed workers, wer concluded that further study was needed or finding out the health effect of toluene exposure.
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