Study On The Biological Exposure Limit Of Occupational Exposure To Acetone

Object To recommend the biological exposure1imit values for acetone in China andprovide policy basis for health protection to the workers of occupational exposure toacetone.Methods Choose the urine samples of no occupational exposure workers asresearch urine sample matrix and head-space technique and gas chromatograph methodwith FID detector was adapted to extract and separate acetone from the urine samples. Inthe optimization of chromatographic conditions, the acetone in urine samples wasqualitatively analyzed with the FID detector and was quantitatively analyzed withstandard addition method. Confecting different acetone concentration standard andfacturing standard curve, the linear equation was calculated and the concentrationlinearity range of acetone was tested. With three different concentrations of acetone inurine being confected uniformly and parallel determined for three times, theaverage concentration, precision were calculated and the standard addition recoveryexperiments was made. With testing the acetone in parallel urinary samples on the firstday, third days, seventh days, tenth days after the preservation, sample stabilityexperiment was carried out and the method was carried on field application. Through theinvestigation and study of20occupational exposure workers to acetone at ShiyanDongfeng Automobile cylinder pad Co, the relationship of urinary urine betweenenvironmental exposure levels was found out according to the investigation ofoccupational health and epidemiology, then the relative internal exposure index (RIE) wascalculated. Combining with the relevant documents and data and consulting theacetone biological exposure limit values and RIE values of other countries, the biologicalexposure limit of occupational exposure to acetone was recommended.Results The acetone concentration in urine for occupational acetone-exposed was testby gas chromatography with FID detector. The separation of this method is satisfactoryand this methods showed good linear relationship in the range of5.2mg/L~166.3mg/L.The detection limit is0.02mg/L, the lower limit of quantification was0.04mg/L and therate of recovery is within93.7%~103.8%.The research showed that there was good linear relationship between acetoneconcentration in urine and the concentrations of acetone in workplace air. The regression analysis of the equation was Y（mg/L）=0.0563x（mg/m3）+2.1203（n=20, r=0.95，p<0.05） According to current environmental air exposure limit values of acetone(PC-TWA) in China, the calculation of occupational workers exposed to acetone at theend of the shift is19.01mg/L. Comparing with the relevant documents and the linearregression equation abroad, according to PC-TWA=300mg/m3of china and the variouslinear regression equations, the calculation of the biological exposure limit values foracetone in urine at the end of the shift were12.69mg/L,11.38mg/L,60.492mg/L,14.23mg/L,26.346mg/L,9.8mg/L.Conclusions Head-space technique and gas chromatograph method was adapted toextract and separate acetone from the urine samples and the acetone was qualitativelyanalyzed with the FID detector and quantitatively analyzed with standard addition method.This method is simple, rapid and accurate, and can be recommended as a standard methodfor biological monitoring of acetone in urine. The study results shows that the RIE ofacetone in urine of China at the end of the shift is0.067, it is namely that the excretion ofacetone via urine is0.067mg/L when the inhaled acetone is1mg/m3. According to currentenvironmental air exposure limit values of acetone (PC-TWA=300mg/m3)in China,consulting the acetone biological exposure limit value and RIE values of other countriesand combining with the relevant documents, data and this study result, the biologicalexposure limit values for urinary acetone in China was proposed as20mg/L.