title: Estimation of biological occupational exposure limit values for selected organic solvents from logartihm of octarol water partition coefficient.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  For several organic solvents (solvents in short), biological occupational exposure limits (BOELs) have been established for un-metabolized solvents in urine, based on the solvent exposure-urinary excretion relationship. This study was initiated to investigate the possibiliy of estimating a BOEL from the Pow (the partition coefficient between n-octyl alcohol and water), a physico-chemical parameter.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data were available in the literatures for exposure-excretion relationship with regard to 10 solvents for men and 7 solvents for women.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Statistical analysis revealed that the slopes (after correction for molecular weights and logarithmic conversion) of the exposure-excretion regression lines linearly correlated (p<0.01) with the log Pow values the respective solvents. No significant difference (p>0.05) was observed between men and women, and it was acceptable to combine the data for the two sexes. Thus the log Pow-log slope relation was represented by a single equation for both sexes. Based on the observations, procedures were established to estimate BOEL values from Pow. Successful estimations of BOELs for styrene, tetrahydrofuran and m-xylene (a representative of xylene isomers) were calculated as examples.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The present study proposed promising procedures for estimation of a BOEL from the Pow.
authors.affiliation: Osaka Occupational Health Service Center, Japan Industrial Safety and Health Association.
authors.forename: Toshio
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kawai
authors.forename: Haruhiko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sakurai
authors.forename: Masayuki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ikeda
mesh_terms: D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000032:analysis*; D009930:Organic Chemicals / Q000652:urine; D012997:Solvents / Q000032:analysis*; D014867:Water
chemical_list: D009930:Organic Chemicals; D012997:Solvents; D014867:Water