Potential Sequential Exposures to 2-Butoxyethanol After Use of a Hard-Surface Cleaner

ABSTRACT Professional workers and consumers frequently use hard-surface cleaning products and these products may contain glycol ethers (GEs), such as 2-Butoxyethanol (2-BE). Governmental agencies have set exposure limits for some chemicals used in cleaning products and these exposure limits have been used as guides to protect human health. The study objectives were to determine realistic inhalation exposures for professional workers performing multiple, sequential cleaning tasks and compare the exposures to the acute reference exposure level (REL), which California established for 2-BE. The ConsExpo model was acceptable for evaluating exposure based on a comparison of its predictions to experimentally measured 2-BE vapor concentrations from hard-surface cleaning. The typical worker exposure was predicted for a cleaning scenario consisting of three bathrooms and three kitchens (or three bedrooms) in a 1-h period. This exposure scenario would not be expected to result in significant health consequences beca...