Biological Monitoring as a Preventive Occupational Healthcare Tool: Urinary Biomarkers of Benzene and Toluene Exposure Among Small-Scale Printing Workers in South Korea
Jungho Hwang, Yangwoo Kim, Inah Kim, Seoyeon Kim, Juyeoung Hwang, Hyein Park, Ki-Youn Kim · 2026
Read Biological Monitoring as a Preventive Occupational Healthcare Tool: Urinary Biomarkers of Benzene and Toluene Exposure Among Small-Scale Printing Workers in South Korea by Jungho Hwang, Yangwoo Kim, Inah Kim, Seoyeon Kim, Juyeoung Hwang, Hyein Park, Ki-Youn Kim (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13362319.txt.
Description
Jungho Hwang and co-authors measured solvent exposure in small Korean printing shops in a 2026 study. Small workplaces often lack health services, yet printers handle benzene and toluene, two hazardous solvents. Air checks are rare in such shops, so the team tested urine markers that show what workers actually absorb. Benzene leaves a marker called SPMA; toluene leaves o-cresol.
O-cresol levels passed the accepted exposure index in about 43 percent of workers, a warning sign. Workers who reported handling benzol, a local trade term, tended to show higher benzene marker levels. The authors say urine testing can anchor preventive care in small firms. They also warn that local chemical nicknames must be handled carefully in multilingual workplace surveys.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Jungho Hwang, Yangwoo Kim, Inah Kim, Seoyeon Kim, Juyeoung Hwang, Hyein Park, Ki-Youn Kim |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 38175 |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |