A Novel Methodology to Evaluate Health Impacts Caused by VOC Exposures Using Real-Time VOC and Holter Monitors

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Atsushi Mizukoshi⁵  Kazukiyo Kumagai³  Naomichi Yamamoto²  Miyuki Noguchi⁴  Kazuhiro Yoshiuchi¹  Hiroaki Kumano⁶ 

[1] Department of Psychosomatic Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Hongo 7-3-1, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8655, Japan; E-Mail:;Environmental Engineering Program, Yale University, 9 Hillhouse Ave., New Haven, CT 06520, USA; E-Mail:;Environmental Health Laboratory Branch, California Department of Public Health, 850 Marina Bay Pkwy, Richmond, CA 94804, USA; E-Mail:;Department of Environment Systems, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa-no-ha 5-1-5, Kashiwa-shi, Chiba 277-8563, Japan; E-Mails:;Tokyo Metropolitan Industrial Technology Research Institute, Nishigaoka, 3-13-10, Kita-ku, Tokyo 115-8586, Japan;Faculty of Human Sciences, Waseda University, Mikashima 2-579-15, Tokorozawa-shi, Saitama 359-1192, Japan; E-Mail:

关键词: real-time monitoring;    VOCs;    heart rate variability (HRV);    Holter monitor;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijerph7124127

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

While various volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are known to show neurotoxic effects, the detailed mechanisms of the action of VOCs on the autonomic nervous system are not fully understood, partially because objective and quantitative measures to indicate neural abnormalities are still under development. Nevertheless, heart rate variability (HRV) has been recently proposed as an indicative measure of the autonomic effects. In this study, we used HRV as an indicative measure of the autonomic effrects to relate their values to the personal concentrations of VOCs measured by a real-time VOC monitor. The measurements were conducted for 24 hours on seven healthy subjects under usual daily life conditions. The results showed HF powers were significantly decreased for six subjects when the changes of total volatile organic compound (TVOC) concentrations were large, indicating a suppression of parasympathetic nervous activity induced by the exposure to VOCs. The present study indicated these real-time monitoring was useful to characterize the trends of VOC exposures and their effects on autonomic nervous system.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2010 by the authors; licensee Molecular Diversity Preservation International, Basel, Switzerland.