[Sampling of expiratory benzene and gas chromatography]

The method of sampling alveolar air and gas chromatography of trace benzene is reported. The lowest detectable concentration of benzene is 7.9 x 10(-4) mg/m3 in 100 ml volume. Method parameters are r = 0.999.9, mean recovery 95.14% and mean relative deviation (CV) 4.94%. 42 non-occupational and 48 occupational workers who exposed to benzene were studied by this method. The concentrations of exhaled benzene are respectively 0.016 +/- 0.011, 0.138 +/- 0.093 (before workshift) and 10.17 +/- 4.11 mg/m3 (after the end of the workshift). The results showed that this method is a simplified method for sampling alveolar air and analysis. Besides for expiratory benzene, this method can be also applied to monitoring of atmospheric trace benzene.