Relationship between dose in vivo of ethylene oxide and exposure to ethene studied in exposed workers

1. In vivo doses of ethylene oxide, arising from ethene exposure, in plastic industry workers were estimated through hemoglobin adducts. The ethene exposure was assessed through person-worn monitors. The metabolic conversion of ethene to ethylene oxide was estimated from the exposure dose/in vivo dose ratio. 2. Two studies were done: In the first study hemoglobin adducts were determined in samples collected on one occasion in exposed groups and exposure doses were estimated by using exposure data from the hygienic surveillance program. The second study applies a newly developed study design with repeated blood sampling in a few persons combined with a complete personal exposure monitoring during the study period. This makes it possible to relate adduct formation with individual short-time exposure doses, which in theory should overcome the problems with exposure history dependence of the adduct level in a single blood sample. The results of the second study shows that it is possible, through the proposed method, to utilize occupational exposure situations for this kind of studies even if the exposure pattern is irregular and highly variable. Both studies show a metabolic conversion of ethene to ethylene oxide of only 0.5%, which is unexpectedly low. 3. The cancer risk associated with the ethene exposure in the highly exposed group (3.6 p.p.m. 40 h/week) is estimated by applying the radiation-dose-equivalence approach. The result of this evaluation leads to a risk corresponding to a radiation dose of 4 mSv/year which is about a factor 3 below the current dose limit for radiological work recommended by ICRP.