Multicenter field trial on possible health effects of toluene. II. Cross-sectional evaluation of acute low-level exposure

• Published in: Toxicology (Amsterdam) 2001-11, Vol.168 (2), p.159-183
• Main Authors: Neubert, Diether, Gericke, Christine, Hanke, Bernd, Beckmann, Gudrun, Baltes, Margret M, Kühl, Klaus-Peter, Bochert, Gerd, Hartmann, Jutta
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acute Disease; Acute effects; Adult; Air Pollutants, Occupational - adverse effects; Body Burden; Chromatography, Gas; Cross-Sectional Studies; Cross-sectional study; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; Female; Field study; Germany - epidemiology; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Neuropsychological Tests; Occupational Diseases - epidemiology; Occupational Diseases - etiology; Occupational exposure; Occupational Exposure - adverse effects; Occupations; Printing; Psychomotor Performance - drug effects; rotogravure industry; shift work; Single-Blind Method; Solvents - adverse effects; Solvents - analysis; Toluene; Toluene - adverse effects; Toluene - blood; Workplace
• ISSN: 0300-483X; 1879-3185
• DOI: 10.1016/S0300-483X(01)00407-3

Data on possible acute effects of today's relevant low-level exposure to toluene are contradictory, and information on possible effects of exposure under occupational conditions is largely lacking. In a controlled, multi-center, blinded field trial, effects possibly associated with acute toluene exposure were evaluated in workers of 12 German rotogravure factories. Medical examinations (inquiries on subjective symptoms, and standard tests of psycho-physiological and psycho-motor functions) were performed on almost 1500 volunteers, of whom 1290 were toluene-exposed (1178 men and 112 women), and about 200 participants served as references (157 men and 37 women), but the main aim of the trial was to reveal dose–response relationships. All volunteers were of the morning work-shift (6 h exposure). Both individual ambient air concentrations (time-weighted average) during the work-shift, as well as blood toluene concentrations after the work-shift were measured. Therefore, the medical data could for the first time be correlated with the actual individual body burden (blood toluene level) at the time of testing. In order to largely exclude confounding by chronic toluene exposure, kinetic measurements as well as the psycho-physiological and psycho-motoric tests were performed before and after the work-shift. Except for minor statistical deviations, neither convincing dose-dependent acute effects could be demonstrated with regression analyses in male volunteers at the exposure levels evaluated, nor were significant differences found when applying group statistics (highly toluene-exposed group versus volunteers with negligible exposure). Due to the rather large number of participants, the predictive power of the study is high, especially when compared with previous publications. In two psycho-physiological tests, a few more female volunteers with quite low toluene body burdens (