A method for the determination of trinitrotoluene in air.

Properties of Trinitrotoluene Trinitrotoluene is the high explosive used as a main bursting charge in shells, mines, and bombs. It is a potent poison for the liver, blood, and blood-forming organs, and fatalities have been recorded from toxic anaemia, toxic jaundice, and acute yellow atrophy of the liver. From 1916 to 1918 there were notified 403 cases of toxic jaundice, 105 (26 %) being fatal, and 15 cases of toxic anaemia, all of which were fatal. In the second world war, toxic jaundice cases numbered 116, with 25 deaths (21P5 %), and toxic anaemia cases 24, with 15 deaths. These figures take no account of the lesser degrees of intoxication where further deterioration was halted by timely intervention. 2: 4: 6-Trinitrotoluene is one of six isomers, and has the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. It is obtained by nitration of the coal-tar product toluene and melts at 81 to 820 C. It is practically insoluble in water, but is soluble in fat and many organic solvents. The vapour pressure at room temperature is very low. Nevertheless, according to Occupation and Health (International Labour Office, 1934), it is capable in the dry state of giving off fumes into the atmosphere at a temperature as low as 320 C. Furthermore, the low vapour pressure means that any vapour arising from hot melted trinitrotoluene will readily condense into fume on meeting cooler air and collect as a fine powder on any surface colder than 700 C. Air pollution is for all practical purposes in the form of suspended solids. Inhalation is by far the most important mode of entry to the body. Stewart, Witts, Higgins, and O'Brien (1945), in observations on persons exposed to contact of different kinds, found that the greatest effects occurred in those who were working in melt houses where there was the most intense exposure to fume. The maximum allowable concentration for an eight-hour day and with a normal amount of physical effort is fixed in America at 1-5 mg. per cubic metre of air. In this country, however, it has generally been accepted that a figure of 2 mg. is permissible. These figures, of course, are always capable of modification when the nature of the work differs from average conditions.