Engineering case report. Toluene and methyl ethyl ketone exposure from a commercially available contact adhesive

A maintenance worker became ill after working indoors over the course of 3 days with a commercially available contact adhesive containing toluene and methyl ethyl ketone. Respiratory protection or local exhaust ventilation was not used. The worker subsequently suffered from numerous medical symptoms including tremors and elevated blood pressure. Magnetic resonance imaging documented the occurrence of encephalopathy. The worker has alleged that the cause of these effects was exposure to the vapors from the contact adhesive. The objective of this study was to characterize/estimate the level of the worker's exposure by obtaining air samples in an exposure chamber while performing similar activities under similar conditions. We found that the worker may have been exposed to approximately 159 ppm toluene and 58 ppm methyl ethyl ketone 8-hr time-weighted averages for 8 hr of adhesive application. The maximum 15-min average exposures were 233 ppm toluene and 85 ppm methyl ethyl ketone.