Assessment through environmental and biological measurements of total daily exposure to volatile organic compounds of office workers in Milan, Italy.

Personal exposure to total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs), benzene and toluene of 100 Milan office workers was assessed through personal air monitoring at home, in the office, and during commuting. Biological monitoring was performed by measuring blood benzene and toluene concentrations together with urinary trans-trans-muconic acid ( t,t-MA) and cotinine at the end of the monitoring period. The geometric means of the total 24-h personal exposure were 514 μg/m3 for TVOCs, 21.2 μg/m3 for benzene and 35.2 μg/m3 for toluene.