Clinical Effects, Exhaled Breath Condensate pH and Exhaled Nitric Oxide in Humans After Ethyl Acrylate Exposure

Ethyl acrylate is an irritant known to affect the upper airways and eyes. An increase of the eye blink frequency in humans was observed during exposure to 5 ppm. Studies on the lower airways are scant and our study objective was the evaluation of pH in exhaled breath condensate (EBC-pH) and nitric oxide in exhaled breath (FeNO) as markers of inflammation. Sixteen healthy volunteers were exposed for 4 h to ethyl acrylate at a concentration of 5 ppm and to sham (0.05 ppm) in an exposure laboratory. Clinical irritation symptoms, EBC-pH (at a pCO2 of 5.33 kPa) and FeNO were assessed before and after exposure. Differences after ethyl acrylate exposure were adjusted for those after sham exposure. 5 ppm ethyl acrylate induced clinical signs of local irritation in the nose and eyes, but not in lower airways. Exposure produced a subtle, but statistically significant, decrease in breathing frequency (1 breath/min; p = 0.017) and a lower EBC-pH (by 0.045 units; p = 0.037). Concerning FeNO, we did not observe significant changes compared to sham exposure. We conclude that local effects induced by 5 ppm ethyl acrylate consist of sensory irritation of eyes and nose. In addition, acute ethyl acrylate exposure to 5 ppm resulted in a net decrease of EBC-pH. Whether that can be interpreted in terms of additional lower airway irritation or already inflammatory alterations set in needs further investigations.