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Occupational Medicine Advance Access published online on May 12, 2009
Occupational Medicine, doi:10.1093/occmed/kqp054
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Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Occupational Medicine 2009.

Influence of tea and coffee on biomonitoring of toluene exposure

Masahiro Munaka

1-3 Niihama-cho, Kanda-machi, Miyako-gun, Fukuoka 800-0321, Japan

Background The intake of some benzoic acid-containing foods or drinks such as green tea and coffee is known to increase urinary hippuric acid (HA) concentrations, and, unless this can be accounted for, may result in false-positive findings during the biological monitoring of toluene exposure.

Aims To investigate the influence of green tea and coffee ingestion on urinary HA concentrations.

Methods Time-weighted average exposures to toluene were monitored by measuring urinary HA in 245 car painters in 2005 and again in 2006. Samples of both urine and blood were collected during work hours. All the participants were also asked about their alcohol intake, smoking and dietary and beverage habits, especially green tea and coffee. To clarify the relationship between green tea and coffee ingestion, workers were prohibited from consuming green tea and coffee for 1 day before the health check-up in 2006.

Results The frequency of positive urinary HA concentrations (>1.0 g/l) in heavy consumers of green tea and/or coffee was significantly higher than that of the non-consumer or light consumers (OR 2.34, 95% CI 1.15–4.74). Prohibiting green tea and coffee ingestion was effective in decreasing the frequency of falsely elevated urinary HA concentrations (P < 0.01).

Conclusions The consumption of green tea and/or coffee can result in an overestimation of urinary HA concentrations and cause false-positive results during the biological monitoring of workers exposed to low doses of toluene.

Keywords      Biological monitoring; catechin; chlorogenic acid; coffee; green tea; hippuric acid

Correspondence to: Munaka Masahiro, 1-3 Niihama-cho, Kanda-machi, Miyako-gun, Fukuoka 800-0321, Japan. Tel: +81 93 435 1133; fax: +81 93 435 1514; e-mail: mmunaka{at}mail.nissan.co.jp


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