EXPERIMENTAL HUMAN EXPOSURE TO METHYL CHLOROFORM VAPOR

Eleven human subjects were experimentally exposed to methyl chloroform (1,1,1-trichloroethane) vapor, 500 ppm, for periods of 6.5 to 7 hours/day for five days. The subjective untoward responses reported were mild, inconsistently present, and of doubtful clinical significance. The only adverse, objective response was an abnormal modified Romberg’s test observed in two of the subjects during exposure. No clinical laboratory test performed during or following the vapor exposures revealed any abnormality of organ function.; Analysis of the exhaled breath of the subjects by infrared or gas chromatographic techniques provided a means with which to establish unequivocally a diagnosis of exposure. Serial measurements of the solvent present in the breath in the postexposure period provided the data from which to construct a family of breath excretion curves useful in estimating the magnitude of exposure to methyl chloroform. © 1969 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.