Research progress on detection methods for aromatic amine compounds in workplace air / 中国职业医学

ABSTRACT

Aromatic amine compounds are diverse, widely used, and highly toxic. They mainly exist in aerosol and vapor in workplace air. Occupational poisoning incidents caused by aromatic amine compounds occur from time to time. In China, occupational exposure limits have been established for only 11 aromatic amine compounds, with supporting detection methods developed only for four compounds： aniline, N-methylaniline, N,N-dimethylaniline, and p-nitroaniline. Most of the highly toxic and hazardous aromatic amine compounds do not have specific limit. Currently, regular sampling mediums for detecting aromatic amine compounds in the workplace air are absorbing solution, filter membrane, silica gel, and poly(styrene-divinylbenzene) resin. Regular detection methods are gas chromatography, liquid chromatography, fluorescence detection, and chromatography-mass spectrometry. However, these methods are mostly designed for detecting individual compounds or their specific forms, and there is a need to develop a detection method that can detect aromatic amine compounds existing in aerosol and vapor form simultaneously using a novel composite sampling tube.