Cent Eur J Public Health 2012, 20(3):226-232 | DOI: 10.21101/cejph.a3649

Study of Urinary Concentrations of Mandelic Acid in Employees Exposed to Styrene

Mária Poláková1, Zdenka Krajčovičová2, Vladimír Meluš2, Mária Štefkovičová1, Margaréta Šulcová3
1 Regional Authority of Public Health, Trenčín, Slovak Republic
2 Department of Laboratory Medicine, Faculty of Healthcare, Alexander Dubček University of Trenčín, Trenčín, Slovak Republic
3 Department of Occupational Health, Faculty of Public Health, Slovak Medical University, Bratislava, Slovak Republic

Mandelic acid (MA) is an important metabolite of styrene. In humans, measurement of its concentration in urine provides an important assess-ment of the overall level of styrene exposure in workers of the reinforced plastic manufacturing industry. The aim of our study was to investigate in these workers the relationship between MA concentration and styrene exposure time and intensity as well as its dependence on work occupation. The concentration of MA in the urine samples of 35 employees was analyzed with HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography). Out of 35 workers, 11 performed laminating, 11 milling and finalizing, 6 laying-up and spraying-up, and 7 worked in background support. Urinal samples were obtained twice a day over the course of three weeks, at the beginning and the end of the work shift. We found a significant increase in MA concentrations during a work shift in all tested days (Wilcoxon test p < 0.05). Employees working in elevated atmospheric concentrations of styrene (93.77-159.88 mg/m3) had significantly higher MA concentrations in urine compared to other groups at both the beginning and the end of the shift (Kruskal-Wallis test p < 0.001) (p < 0.001). Only samples from laminating workers exceeded the biological limit of MA concentration (640 mg/L) at the end of the shift. Normalisation of MA concentration to body mass index (BMI, normal range: 21.7 ± 3.2 kg/m2) refined differences within groups (Kruskal-Wallis analysis p < 0.001). The accumulation of MA at the end of the work shift for measured time period was not significant for the measured time period (Friedman analysis p > 0.11). Our results confirmed that MA is a sensitive metabolic marker of styrene exposure without cumulative effect. However, normalization of MA concentrations to BMI can improve the accuracy of styrene exposure estimates in certain groups of employees.

Keywords: styrene, mandelic acid, exposure, BMI

Received: November 11, 2010; Revised: June 14, 2012; Accepted: June 14, 2012; Published: September 1, 2012  Show citation

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Poláková M, Krajčovičová Z, Meluš V, Štefkovičová M, Šulcová M. Study of Urinary Concentrations of Mandelic Acid in Employees Exposed to Styrene. Cent Eur J Public Health. 2012;20(3):226-232. doi: 10.21101/cejph.a3649. PubMed PMID: 23285526.
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