Improving Volatile Organic Compound Exposure Assessment Using Biomonitoring by Relating Exposure Biomarker Levels in Blood and Urine

Exposure assessment of hazardous volatile organic compounds (VOCs) requires accurate quantification of internal dose when establishing limits or identifying significant differences within and among populations. Even though accurate internal dose can be directly measured in blood, it is not always practical or possible to collect a suitable blood specimen. This work studies the relationship between blood and urine levels for certain smoke biomarkers (e.g., tobacco, marijuana) measured in self-reported cigarette smokers. Urine and blood specimens were collected as matched pairs from individuals at the same time. We used our latest specimen collection and VOC analysis protocols to minimize sample collection, handling, and analysis biases. From these analyses, unmetabolized urine benzene, furan, 2,5-dimethylfuran, isobutyronitrile, and benzonitrile levels were found to trend with blood levels. In addition, we measured urine creatinine levels, which were found to be significantly associated with all blood analyte concentrations (p-value ranging from <0.0063 to <0.0001) except for isobutyronitrile (p = 0.3347). For the analytes that were associated with urine creatinine levels, the ratios of urine-to-blood concentrations were substantially higher than those predicted from the urine/blood partition coefficients (K_urine/blood), which should occur if VOCs can freely equilibrate (i.e., passive diffusion) between the blood and urine. The urine isobutyronitrile concentration, which was the only analyte that was not associated with the urine creatinine level, had a urine-to-blood ratio similar to K_urine/blood. These results suggest either that urine VOC levels for certain VOCs do not equilibrate with blood levels in the urinary tract or that there is a conversion of conjugated to free forms, increasing urine VOC levels. Nevertheless, these deviations from partition theory (e.g., Henry’s Law) are analyte-specific and require characterization to establish a relationship between blood and urine levels.