Absorption and alveolar excretion of cyclohexane in workers in a shoe factory.

The lung uptake and excretion of cyclohexane were studied in five workers and three volunteers in a shoe factory. Air samples were collected from the breathing zones with personal samplers, and simultaneous samples of inhaled and alveolar air were collected with the aid of a Rhan-Otis valve. Cyclohexane was absorbed on activated NIOSH approved charcoal tubes. The uptake was calculated from the pulmonary ventilation, the retention coefficient and environmental concentration. Alveolar excretion was monitored during a 6 h post-exposure period. The amount of exhaled cyclohexane was calculated from the decay curve. According to experimental data, the alveolar retention of cyclohexane is about 34% of the inhaled dose. This corresponds to a lung uptake of 23%. The post-exposure alveolar excretion does not exceed 10% of the total uptake. The difference between respiratory uptake and excretion indicates that the amount metabolized may be very large. Nevertheless, the urinary excretion of the main metabolites, cyclohexanol and cyclohexanone, was only about 1% of the absorbed dose.