Table 4

Summary statistics for PCE exposure indices for female dry cleaning workersa

PCE exposure indices
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Overall






n
M (SD)
GM (GSD)
n
M (SD)
GM (GSD)
n
M (SD)
GM (GSD)
n
M (SD)
GM (GSD)





PCE TWA (ppm)
17b
2.41 (3.42)
1.45 (2.73)
18
3.85 (5.35)
1.84 (3.84)



35
3.15 (4.51)
1.64 (3.26)
PCE in blood (ng/ml) pre-shift



15c
70.5 (106.4)
36.7 (3.34)



15
70.5 (106.4)
36.7 (3.34)
PCE in exhaled breath (ppm) pre-shift
15b,d
0.55 (0.38)
0.37 (2.87)
18
0.54 (0.41)
0.39 (2.40)
18
0.45 (0.33)
0.30 (2.82)
51
0.51 (0.37)
0.35 (2.65)
PCE in exhaled breath (ppm) post-shift
16b,d
0.87 (0.56)
0.71 (2.02)
18
1.14 (0.91)
0.71 (3.11)
11e
1.82 (0.93)
1.63 (1.63)
45
1.21 (0.87)
0.87 (2.51)
TCA in urine/creatinine (mg/g) pre-shift



14e
1.13 (1.94)
0.29 (7.23)



14
1.13 (1.94)
0.29 (7.23)
TCA in urine/creatinine (mg/g) post-shift



15e
0.86 (1.08)
0.37 (4.89)
9e,f
1.06 (0.93)
0.86 (1.86)
24
0.94 (1.01)
0.51 (3.89)

Abbreviations: n, number of samples/specimens; M, arithmetic mean; SD, standard deviation; GM, geometric mean; GSD, geometric standard deviation

a For the referent laundry workers PCE TWA (nondetectable) and blood (two orders of magnitude lower than the dry cleaners) were reported in Toraason et al. 2003 [36]

b One worker not available for sampling on Wednesday

c Three blood specimen results did not satisfy laboratory quality control criteria and were excluded prior to analysis.

d Exhaled breath samples were lost due to sample handling.

e Samples contained creatinine concentrations outside the 0.3 – 3 g/L range and were excluded prior to analysis.

f Two individuals worked alternate schedules and were not sampled on this day.

McKernan et al. Environmental Health 2008 7:12   doi:10.1186/1476-069X-7-12