Toxicokinetics of organic solvents: a review of modifying factors

This article reviews, with an emphasis on human experimental data, factors known or suspected to cause changes in the toxicokinetics of organic solvents. Such changes in the toxicokinetic pattern alters the relation between external exposure and target dose and thus may explain some of the observed individual variability in susceptibility to toxic effects. Factors shown to modify the uptake, distribution, biotransformation, or excretion of solvent include physical activity (work load), body composition, age, sex, genetic polymorphism of the biotransformation, ethnicity, diet, smoking, drug treatment, and coexposure to ethanol and other solvents. A better understanding of modifying factors is needed for several reasons. First, it may help in identifying important potential confounders and eliminating negligible ones. Second, the risk assessment process may be improved if different sources of variability between external exposures and target doses can be quantitatively assessed. Third, biological exposure monitoring may be also improved for the same reason.