ArticlePloS one2025
Occupational exposure to styrene and acute health effects among fiberglass-reinforced plastic workers: An integrated environmental and biological monitoring study.
Article in PloS one, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Styrene remains a major hazard in fiberglass-reinforced plastic (FRP) manufacturing. The current 10 ppm 8-h TLV-TWA is half the former limit, and the movement by several European states toward comparable or lower OELs highlights the need for fresh exposure-response data. In this study, eighty-five Korean FRP workers were monitored cross-sectionally. Full-shift breathing-zone styrene was measured by GC-FID; post-shift urine was analysed for mandelic acid (MA) and phenyl-glyoxylic acid (PGA), and dermal uptake was estimated with fluorescent tracers. Neuro-irritative symptoms were assessed by questionnaire and clinically verified in a subset. The results showed that median styrene levels were 18.65 ppm (spray-up), 12.42 ppm (hand lay-up) and 6.37 ppm (closed-mold). Urinary MA and PGA correlated with air levels (r = 0.78, 0.77). Dermal styrene load showed a moderate correlation with urinary MA (r = 0.42, p < 0.001). Symptom prevalence rose from 19% to 71% across exposure quartiles (adjusted OR = 5.6). A biomarker-based model using urinary mandelic acid (MA) with covariates (age, ventilation) showed strong apparent discrimination (AUC = 0.93). We propose 0.38 mg/g creatinine (MA) as a candidate operational ("early-warning") threshold, pending external validation. In conclusion, integrated air, biological and dermal metrics reveal dose-dependent acute effects at or below 10 ppm. In this cross-sectional analysis, higher styrene exposure was associated with increased acute symptoms at or below ~10 ppm; these associations warrant confirmation in longitudinal studies with repeated biomonitoring. We present 0.38 mg/g creatinine (MA) as a candidate operational ("early-warning")threshold to flag workers for closer evaluation; external validation is needed, and engineering controls remain the primary means of risk reduction.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.