The effect of cigarette smoking on urinary hippuric acid concentration in Thai workers with occupational exposure to toluene.

ABSTRACT

Urine hippuric acid determination is helpful for monitoring of group of workers at risk for exposure to toluene. However, some problems about the external source of variation are mentioned. Some studies have indicated that smoking is an important external source of variation for determination of urine hippuric acid level while the others stated the opposite findings. This study was conducted in an attempt to study the difference of urine hippuric acid between smoking and non smoking subjects in a press workers group. Urine samples were obtained from 46 workers (all male) who worked as press workers in the same press factory in Bangkok. The individuals were classified as control (non smoking, N = 26) and experimental (smoking, N = 20) according to their smoking. All samples were analyzed for hippuric acid level. The average urine hippuric acid level for the control were (0.35 +/- 0.31 mg/gCr) and experimental group (0.40 + 0.45 mg/gCr) were respectively. No significant difference was found between urine hippuric acid level between both groups. The data from the current study indicates that smoking does not influence the urinary hippuric acid levels in this study group.