Monitoring exposure of personnel to volatile nitrosamines in the laboratory environment.

A convenient sampling method was developed for collection of volatile nitrosamines from large-volume air samples. Stainless steel tubes containing 0.3 g Tenax GC were employed to collect nitrosamines from 5-30 1 air samples. Nitrosamines were eluted from the sample tubes with diethylether to minimize formation of artifacts which were observed when thermal desorption was employed. Eluates were analysed directly by GC-TEA and nitrosamine identities were confirmed using high-resolution GC-MS with selected ion-monitoring. The detection limit was approximately 0.8 micrograms/m3 (0.3 ppb) for NDMA in 2 ml of diethylether extract. The laboratory operations studied included chemical synthesis, trace analysis, animal treatment, microbial mutagenesis tests and in vitro biochemical procedures. In most cases, nitrosamines were not detected in laboratory air, but levels of 200-800 micrograms/m3 (42 to 180 ppb) of N-nitrosomethyl-tert-butylamine were measured during animal treatment, 0.8-8.6 micrograms/m3 (0.3 to 2.8 ppb) of NDMA during mutagenesis assays, 12-22 micrograms/m3 (4-7 ppb) of NDMA during in vitro metabolism studies and 11 micrograms/m3 (3.6 ppb) of NDMA in a walk-in refrigerator. Appropriate corrective measures reduced all nitrosamine levels to below the detection limit. Hamsters and rats treated with NDAA (80 mg/kg, s.c.) excreted 4.4 and 12.9%, respectively, of the nitrosamine in expired air in 24 hr. This route of excretion may be metabolically significant and should be considered in the safe design of animal treatment and holding facilities.