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. 2012 Dec 2;7(1):24.
doi: 10.1186/1745-6673-7-24.

A pilot study on the stability of toluene in blood from workers

Masanori Ogawa  1 , Teppei Sasahara
Affiliations

A pilot study on the stability of toluene in blood from workers

Masanori Ogawa et al. J Occup Med Toxicol. .

Abstract

Background: Biological monitoring is used to assess toluene exposure in medical examinations. The American Conference of Industrial Hygienists, Japanese Society for Occupational Health and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft have proposed various biological exposure determinants, such as toluene in blood and urine, and o-cresol in urine. Toluene in blood is a common biomarker among them. Toluene is a volatile organic solvent; therefore, sample preservation under appropriate conditions before measurement is necessary. However, little study has been done on the stability of toluene in workers' blood samples under conditions simulating those of a medical examination.

Finding: We carried out a pilot study on the stability of toluene in blood from humans, according to different methods of sample preservation. Toluene in blood was analyzed by head space-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. The sealing performance of the vial was examined by using toluene-added blood and the stability of toluene in blood according to the preservation period was examined by using blood from toluene-handling workers, which was collected with vacuum blood tubes. The sealing performance of the headspace vial used in this study was good for three days and toluene in blood in tubes from workers was stable at least within 8 hours up to blood packing at 4°C.

Conclusion: We could propose that the collected blood need only be transferred into headspace vials on the collection day and analyzed within a few days, if the samples are preserved at 4°C. Our data size is limited; however, it may be considered basic information for biological monitoring in medical examinations.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The toluene level in toluene-added blood according to the time lag between packing and measurement. The toluene level in toluene-added blood according to the time lag between packing and measurement, setting the toluene levels on the collection day to be 100%.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The change of toluene level in blood from workers according to the preservation period. The toluene level in blood from workers according to the preservation period, setting the toluene levels immediately after packing to be 100%.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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