Handbook of Solvents - George Wypych - ChemTech - Ventech!

20.3 Pregnancy outcome following solvent exposure 1333
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20.3 PREGNANCY OUTCOME FOLLOWING MATERNAL ORGANIC
SOLVENT EXPOSURE
Kristen I. McMartin and Gideon Koren
The Motherisk Program, Division of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology,
Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada
20.3.1 INTRODUCTION
Organic solvents are a structurally diverse group of low molecular weight liquids that are
able to dissolve other organic substances. 1 Chemicals in the solvent class include aliphatic
hydrocarbons, aromatic hydrocarbons, halogenated hydrocarbons, aliphatic alcohols,
glycols, and glycol ethers. Fuels are a mixture of various hydrocarbons. They are generally
ubiquitous in industrialized society, both at work and at the home. They may be encountered
as individual agents or in complex mixtures such as gasoline. Incidental exposures
may include vapors from gasoline, lighter fluid, spot removers, aerosol sprays and paints.
These short duration and low level exposures may often go undetected. More serious exposures
occur mainly in the industrial or laboratory settings during manufacturing and processing
operations such as dry cleaning, regular working with paint removers, thinners,
floor and tile cleaners, glue and as laboratory reagents. Gasoline sniffing or glue sniffing,
albeit not occurring in the occupational setting, is another source of exposure to organic solvents
during pregnancy.
Counseling pregnant women who are occupationally exposed to numerous chemicals
(mostly organic solvents) is difficult because it is hard to estimate the predominant chemicals
and their by-products. Even after identifying the more toxic agents, it is still difficult to
assess the circumstances of exposure as for many chemicals one can measure neither airborne
nor blood levels. Smelling the odor of organic solvents is not indicative of a significant
exposure as the olfactory nerve can detect levels as low as several parts per million
which are not necessarily associated with toxicity. As an example, the odor threshold of toluene
is 0.8 parts per million whereas the TLV-TWA (threshold limit value-time weighted
average) is 50 parts per million. In addition, reproductive information on many individual
solvents is at best sparse, either limited to animal studies or nonexistent.