Exhaled air sample

The theoretical principles discussed above lead to two choices for collecting breath samples Should a mixed-exhaled air or an end-exhaled air sample be collected ... 

Breath monitoring maybe used to assess exposures to solvents either qualitatively or quantitatively. Qualitative information may be useful when exposure to a number of solvents is suspeeted. For qualitative purposes, eiflier mixed-exhaled or end-exhaled air samples may be used. Provided that flie sample collection and the analytical techniques are appropriate, a list of solvents may be thus identified and quantitative measurements planned. 

In another study, four male volunteers were exposed to 80 ppm of styrene in a chamber for 6 hours. Venous blood samples were collected during exposure and a nearly simultaneous set of 10 blood and mixed exhaled air samples were collected following exposure for up to 40 hours. Blood levels during exposure rose rapidly and reached an almost constant level by the end of the 6 hours. Following exposure, the results showed that styrene was cleared from the blood according to a linear two-compartment pharmacokinetic model, with half-life values of 0.58 and 13 hours, for the rapid and slow elimination phases, respectively. 

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