Monitoring occupational exposure to ethylene oxide by the determination of hemoglobin adducts.

In a study on workers in a chemical plant where ethylene oxide (EtO) is manufactured and partly used for ethylene glycol production, exposure to EtO was monitored during annual periodic health assessments in January 1988, December 1988, and March 1990 by the determination of the level of 2-hydroxyethylvaline (HOEtVal) in hemoglobin. The HOEtVal levels in workers corresponded with the potential EtO exposures. The highest level was found in December 1988, in blood samples collected 1-2 months after a shut-down, maintenance, and start-up program. The range of adduct levels found in the three examinations indicated that average EtO exposures during the 4 months preceding blood sampling were below 0.5 ppm. It was demonstrated that the method allows for the accurate monitoring of low levels of EtO exposure and provides personalized time-integrated exposure data with great discriminative power. In addition, the method may serve to identify unexpected personal exposures, which may lead to targeted exposure control measures.