ROUTE-OF-ENTRY AND BRAIN TISSUE PARTITION COEFFICIENTS FOR COMMON SUPERFUND CONTAMINANTS

Various organic solvents may be encountered in contaminated water supplies at U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-designated Superfund sites. Human exposure to these environmental contaminants may occur by oral, dermal, or inhalation routes. The estimation of human health risk associated with exposure to these solvents can be improved through the use of physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) models to describe the absorption, tissue distribution, metabolism, and elimination of the compounds following any route of exposure. However, development of these PBPK models requires information on the relative solubility, or partition coefficient, of each compound in blood and various tissues. A number of investigators have provided partition coefficient information on different tissues in various species; however, the data for route of entry organs (i.e., skin, lung, stomach) and brain tissue are not complete. Therefore, the objective of this work was to replicate partition coefficient studies for several c...