Assessment of environmental exposure to trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene

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Reveals the possible influence of trichloroethylene (TRI) and tetrachloroethylene (perchloroethylene, PER) via drinking water on the body burden resulting from a study of 55 subjects with no known solvent exposure, selected from the residents of the city of Zagreb. TRI and PER were determined in blood and their metabolite trichloroacetic acid (TCA) in plasma and urine. Drinking water samples were also analysed for TRI and PER. TRI concentrations in the blood ranged from <0.015‐0.09 μg/L, PER <0.010‐0.239 μg/L, TCA in plasma 8.6‐123.97 μg/L, in urine 1.67‐85.18 μg/24 h, TRI in drinking water 2.58‐22.93 μg/L and PER 0.63‐7.33 μg/L. Correlation analyses reveal significant relationships between TRI and PER in blood (r = 0.428; p = 0.0014), TRI and PER in drinking water (r = 0.767; p = 0.0000), TCA in urine and TCA in plasma (r = 0.629; p = 0.0000), ln TRI in drinking water and ln TCA in plasma (r = 0.322; p = 0.0164) and urine (r = 0.348; p = 0.0093), ln PER in drinking water and ln TCA in plasma (r = 0.370; p = 0.0055) and urine (r = 0.345; p = 0.0098). The latter quantitative relationships between both ln TRI and ln PER in drinking water relate to ln TCA in plasma and urine and may indicate TCA as a possible biologic marker of environmental exposure to TRI and PER.