Urinary hippuric acid excretion in everyday life.

The biological monitoring for exposure to toluene is based on the measurement of urinary hippuric acid concentration (HA-U). In occupational health, workers exposed to toluene are examined for HA-U, because collection of urine samples is easy. The HA-U of some designers in a great household electrical products corporation who did not use toluene occupationally showed relatively high values. From statistical analyses, it was revealed that the HA-U values of the designers who lived without family members were higher than those with family members and that the values on Monday were higher than those on Friday. Some factors which elevate the HA-U level are considered in individuals living alone and/or in life at weekends. These may be to drink many soft drinks, especially low calorie ones, in which benzoic acid is used as a preservative.