Development of a method to determine workers' personal exposure levels to glyphosate

OBJECTIVES: We aimed to develop a method to determine workers' personal exposure levels to N‐(phosphonomethyl)glycine (glyphosate) for their risk assessments. METHODS: The proposed method was assessed as follows: recovery, stability of samples on storage, method limit of quantification, and reproducibility. Glyphosate in air was sampled using an air‐sampling cassette containing a glass fiber filter. Ultrapure water was used to extract glyphosate from sampler filters. After derivation with 9‐fluorenylmethyloxycarbonyl chloride, samples were analyzed by high‐performance liquid chromatography using a fluorescence detector. RESULTS: Spiked samples indicated an overall recovery of 101%. After 7 days of storage at 4°C, recoveries were approximately 100%. The method limit of quantification was 0.060 μg/sample. Relative standard deviations representing overall reproducibility, defined as precision, were 1.4%–1.8%. CONCLUSIONS: The method developed in this study allows 4‐h personal exposure monitoring of glyphosate at 0.250–500 μg/m(3). Thus, this method can be used to estimate worker exposure to glyphosate.