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. 2024 Jan 4;66(1):uiae059.
doi: 10.1093/joccuh/uiae059.

Urinary benzyl alcohol and hippuric acid in workers exposed to benzyl alcohol during paint-stripping work

Kenta Ishii  1   2   3   4 , Akito Takeuchi  1 , Masami Shimada  3 , Hiromi Momokawa  3 , Tomiko Tashiro  1 , Ai Yamada  1   5 , Kumiko Arai  3 , Akira Namera  6 , Kenji Yamamuro  3 , Koichi Kato  4 , Toshihiro Kawamoto  3 , Ginji Endo  1
Affiliations

Urinary benzyl alcohol and hippuric acid in workers exposed to benzyl alcohol during paint-stripping work

Kenta Ishii et al. J Occup Health. .

Abstract

Objective: We aimed to develop a reliable gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) method for detecting urinary benzyl alcohol (BeOH) concentrations and assess the suitability of urinary BeOH as a biomarker for occupational BeOH exposure.

Methods: Thirteen male participants exposed to BeOH during paint-stripping work provided preshift and postshift urine samples, and their personal exposure concentrations were measured. Meanwhile, a control group of 10 nonexposed workers contributed urine samples. The newly developed GC-MS method met regulatory guidelines.

Results: The personal exposure concentrations of BeOH ranged from 8.4 to 45.2 mg/m3. Postshift urine samples from exposed participants showed significant BeOH and hippuric acid (HA) concentration increases compared with preshift samples (BeOH, post-/pre-shift geometric mean [GM] ratio = 7.5-7.8, P < .001; HA, post-/pre-shift GM ratio = 4.3-4.5, P < .001). These levels were considerably higher than those in postshift samples from the nonexposed control group (BeOH, exposed-/nonexposed-workers GM ratio = 14.8-19.0, P < .001; HA, exposed-/nonexposed-workers GM ratio = 12.1-15.3, P < .001), even after urine density correction.

Conclusions: Urinary BeOH and HA can serve as potential biomarkers of occupational exposure to BeOH. More specifically, BeOH might serve as a biomarker superior to HA because it is apparently less influenced by confounding factors such as dietary intake and genetic polymorphism of low-Km aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH2). The findings will improve workplace safety measures and protocols, assisting health care professionals in diagnosing and managing exposure-related health issues, thereby potentially reducing the risk of occupational exposure to BeOH.

Keywords: benzyl alcohol; biological monitoring; gas chromatography–mass spectrometry; occupational exposure; urine; worker.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Metabolism of benzyl alcohol in humans. ADH, alcohol dehydrogenase; ALDH, aldehyde dehydrogenase.
Figure 2
Figure 2
SIM chromatograms. Typical GC–MS chromatograms of urine (A) after adding BeOH to human urine (1000 μg/L), (B) control (48 μg/L), (C) of BeOH-exposed worker preshift (120 μg/L), and (D) of BeOH-exposed worker postshift (2553 μg/L: diluted 5 times). Peaks of (1:black:m/z = 85) benzyl-d7 alcohol (I.S.:500 μg/L) and (2:pink:m/z = 108) benzyl alcohol. BeOH, benzyl alcohol; GC–MS, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, m/z, mass-to-charge ratio.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Boxplot of creatinine-corrected urinary concentrations of HA and BeOH in BeOH-exposed and -nonexposed workers. BeOH, benzyl alcohol; HA, hippuric acid.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Scatter diagrams for the personal exposure concentrations of benzyl alcohol (BeOH-A) versus the differences between pre- and post-shift urine creatinine-corrected concentrations of (A) hippuric acid (HA-U) and (B) benzyl alcohol (BeOH-U), n = 13.
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