Exposure assessment of ETBE in gas station workers and gasoline tanker truck drivers.

OBJECTIVES In order to measure occupational exposure concentrations of ethyl tertiary-butyl ether (ETBE), we developed a diffusive sampling method for monitoring ETBE and performed an ETBE exposure assessment. METHODS The applicability of diffusive samplers was examined by exposing the samplers to ETBE vapor in test chambers. The personal exposure levels of workers and airborne concentrations were measured at 4 gas stations. RESULTS The ETBE sampling rate for the diffusive samplers (VOC-SD, Sigma-Aldrich Japan) was 25.04 ml/min (25°C). Compared with the active sampling method, the diffusive samplers could be used for short-term measurements and in environments containing a mixture of organic solvents. The geometric mean (GM) of TWA-8h ETBE was 0.08 ppm (0.02-0.28 ppm) in 28 gas station workers and 0.04 ppm (0.01-0.21 ppm) in 2 gasoline tanker truck drivers. With regard to ETBE airborne concentrations, the GM was 4.12 ppm (0.93-8.71 ppm) at the handles of hanging pumps but dropped to less than 0.01 ppm (less than 0.01-0.01 ppm) at the side of a public road. CONCLUSION The diffusive sampling method can be used for the measurement of occupational ETBE exposure. The threshold limit of TLV-TWA 5 ppm recommended by the ACGIH was not exceeded in any of the workers in this study.