Exhaled Breath Analysis for Uptake Monitoring

Exhaled breath can be used to assess volatile fraction of the systemic uptake, regardless of route of entry (presumably dermal in this case) (Pleil and Lindstrom, 1998 (link); Pleil, 2008 ). We measured the concentrations of combustion products in exhaled breath samples collected pre-, post-, and 6-h post-exposure. The firefighters were instructed to take a deep breath in and then forcefully exhale into the Bio-VOC™ sampler (Markes International, Wilmington, DE, USA) until they had fully expired their breath, permitting the sampler to collect alveolar air. We then pushed the collected alveolar air through Markes Carbograph 2TD/Carbograph 1TD thermal desorption tubes using a plunger. The samples were analyzed for aromatic hydrocarbons (benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene, xylene, and styrene) and semi-volatile PAHs (naphthalene, anthracene, phenanthrene, fluoranthene, and pyrene) using a gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) method described in Sobus et al. (2008) (link).