[Studies on the evaluation of exposure to industrial chemicals]

Among the biological exposure indices of lead, lead in plasma was the most direct indicator of current exposure. Lead mobilized into plasma as well as in urine could be used as an indicator of the internal dose of lead. The ratio of non-treated to restored activity of delta-aminolevulinic acid dehydratase (ALA-D) was a more specific index than ALA-D activity itself at low levels of lead exposure, excluding the familial or genetic variation in the activity. The methods using HPLC for determining heme intermediate improved the evaluation of the lead effect: delta-aminolevulinic acid in plasma, blood, and urine (ALA-P, ALA-B, and ALA-U), coproporphyrin in urine, and zinc protoporphyrin in blood (ZP). ROC (Receiver operating characteristic) curve analyses indicated that the diagnostic values for lead exposure decreased in the order ALA-D ratio > ALA-D activity = ALA-P > ALA-U = ZP. Pyrimidine 5'-nucleotidase activity or pyrimidine nucleotide concentrations in blood was also useful for the monitoring or diagnosis of lead intoxication. Using the HPLC method with inclusion compounds in the mobile phase, hippuric acid, methylhippuric acids, mandelic acid and phenylglyoxylic acid could be simultaneously determined in the urine of workers exposed to a mixture of toluene, xylenes, and ethylbenzene. The correction of the urinary metabolite concentration for specific gravity or creatinine allowed the more specific evaluation of the solvent exposure. In the biological monitoring of chlorinated hydrocarbons such as trichloroethylene, prolonged excretion of the metabolites resulted in a bias between metabolite concentrations and TWA levels of the solvent in a day. The background levels of 2,5-hexanedione (HD) were affected by acid hydrolysis conditions, age, sex and lipid metabolism. Substances hydrolyzed to HD in urine from non-exposed subjects were different from HD detected in the workers exposed to n-hexane. Urinary concentrations of N-acetyl-S-(N-methylcarbamoyl) cysteine (AMCC) served as an index of the average exposure to N, N-dimethylformamide during several preceding work days and may indicate the internal dose, while N-methylformamide may be an index of daily exposure. A simple and rapid method for the determination of urinary alkoxyacetic acids was recently developed for the biological monitoring of workers exposed to glycolethers and their acetates. Urinary butoxy acetic acid (free plus conjugated ones) could be simply determined by gaschromatography after acid hydrolysis of urine. The urinary acetone or methanol concentration determined by the head space technique was also useful for the biological monitoring of workers exposed to isopropanol and/or acetone, or methanol, respectively. Evaluation of exposure to the solvents described above could be carried out by comparing the urinary metabolite concentrations with reference values and the biological exposure index values which were defined as the urinary metabolite concentration corresponding to the threshold value for each solvent.