Biological monitoring of acrylonitrile exposure

A study was made of the excretion pattern of acrylonitrile (AN) in urine of 15 AN-exposed workers. During a 7-day working period with the following 2 days off, the workers delivered all their urines separately. Exposure data, collected by personal monitoring, showed a mean 8-hour TWA value of 0.13 ppm. The excretion of AN in urine (AN(U) ) showed a typical pattern; concentrations peaked at the end or shortly after the end of the workday and decreased rapidly until the beginning of the next workday. A control group of 41 nonexposed workers of the same company showed a significant increase of AN(U) with increasing number of cigarettes smoked. The AN(U) concentrations of the exposed workers however were, despite the low exposure, much higher than those of the controls, both during the workdays and during the days off. Biological monitoring of AN-exposed workers by assessing AN(U) therefore seems a very sensitive exposure evaluation method, especially because it accounts for inhalation as well as skin penetration as routes for entering the body.