Ortho-cresol as indicator for toluene exposure among workers

Toluene is a volatile organic solvent used by most industries and household items such as lacquers, paints, glue and nail polish. Recently, the negative health effects on exposure to toluene have attracted various studies. To combat the negative effects, American Conference of Governmental Industria...

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Main Author:	Said, Nazirah
Format:	Thesis
Language:	English
Published:	2013
Subjects:	TP Chemical technology
Online Access:	http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/38860/5/NazirahSaidMFS2013.pdf
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spelling	my-utm-ep.388602017-06-21T00:36:53Z Ortho-cresol as indicator for toluene exposure among workers 2013-12 Said, Nazirah TP Chemical technology Toluene is a volatile organic solvent used by most industries and household items such as lacquers, paints, glue and nail polish. Recently, the negative health effects on exposure to toluene have attracted various studies. To combat the negative effects, American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) had lowered the occupational exposure limit from 100 ppm to 50 ppm of toluene vapour. Therefore, this could be translated into the need for a new, simple and more specific indicator test to monitor the degree of toluene exposure among workers. Reports showed that toluene is transformed into its metabolites once consumed or exposed to it. The qualitative detection of these metabolites therefore can be used as an indicator for toluene exposure. Presently in Malaysia, hippuric acid detected in urine is used as the indicator for the degree of toluene exposure. However, hippuric acid is also influenced by one’s dietary intake like black tea, acidic food and sodium benzoate as in food preservatives. In addition, at low levels of toluene exposure, hippuric acid showed poor correlation and linearity in analysis. Thus, in this study, another metabolite of toluene, ortho-cresol was introduced. It was found that urinary ortho-cresol was more specific and sensitive in monitoring toluene exposure. In this study, the degree of toluene exposure of six workers (real samples) was analyzed using urinary ortho-cresol. The samples, along with standards, were characterized using UV-Vis spectrophotometer. Three samples out of six samples were found to have ortho-cresol concentrations between 3.00 ppm - 3.05 ppm. These concentrations are all above the permitted value of 3.00 ppm. A detector kit which establishes the presence of ortho-cresol in urine was also developed in this study. The kit, which exploits a simple colour test with 0.2 ppm as its lowest limit of detection is indispensible especially to monitor the health of workers that are exposed almost daily to toluene. 2013-12 Thesis http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/38860/ http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/38860/5/NazirahSaidMFS2013.pdf application/pdf en public masters Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Faculty of Science Faculty of Science
institution	Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
collection	UTM Institutional Repository
language	English
topic	TP Chemical technology
spellingShingle	TP Chemical technology Said, Nazirah Ortho-cresol as indicator for toluene exposure among workers
description	Toluene is a volatile organic solvent used by most industries and household items such as lacquers, paints, glue and nail polish. Recently, the negative health effects on exposure to toluene have attracted various studies. To combat the negative effects, American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) had lowered the occupational exposure limit from 100 ppm to 50 ppm of toluene vapour. Therefore, this could be translated into the need for a new, simple and more specific indicator test to monitor the degree of toluene exposure among workers. Reports showed that toluene is transformed into its metabolites once consumed or exposed to it. The qualitative detection of these metabolites therefore can be used as an indicator for toluene exposure. Presently in Malaysia, hippuric acid detected in urine is used as the indicator for the degree of toluene exposure. However, hippuric acid is also influenced by one’s dietary intake like black tea, acidic food and sodium benzoate as in food preservatives. In addition, at low levels of toluene exposure, hippuric acid showed poor correlation and linearity in analysis. Thus, in this study, another metabolite of toluene, ortho-cresol was introduced. It was found that urinary ortho-cresol was more specific and sensitive in monitoring toluene exposure. In this study, the degree of toluene exposure of six workers (real samples) was analyzed using urinary ortho-cresol. The samples, along with standards, were characterized using UV-Vis spectrophotometer. Three samples out of six samples were found to have ortho-cresol concentrations between 3.00 ppm - 3.05 ppm. These concentrations are all above the permitted value of 3.00 ppm. A detector kit which establishes the presence of ortho-cresol in urine was also developed in this study. The kit, which exploits a simple colour test with 0.2 ppm as its lowest limit of detection is indispensible especially to monitor the health of workers that are exposed almost daily to toluene.
format	Thesis
qualification_level	Master's degree
author	Said, Nazirah
author_facet	Said, Nazirah
author_sort	Said, Nazirah
title	Ortho-cresol as indicator for toluene exposure among workers
title_short	Ortho-cresol as indicator for toluene exposure among workers
title_full	Ortho-cresol as indicator for toluene exposure among workers
title_fullStr	Ortho-cresol as indicator for toluene exposure among workers
title_full_unstemmed	Ortho-cresol as indicator for toluene exposure among workers
title_sort	ortho-cresol as indicator for toluene exposure among workers
granting_institution	Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Faculty of Science
granting_department	Faculty of Science
publishDate	2013
url	http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/38860/5/NazirahSaidMFS2013.pdf
_version_	1747816531180388352

Ortho-cresol as indicator for toluene exposure among workers

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