Search

Methods for the determination of 3,4-dichloroaniline (3,4-DCA) and 3,5-dichloroaniline (3,5-DCA) as common markers of eight non-persistent pesticides in human urine are presented. 3,5-DCA is a marker for the exposure to the fungicides vinclozolin, procymidone, iprodione, and chlozolinate. Furthermore the herbicides diuron, linuron, neburon, and propanil are covered using their common marker 3,4-DCA. The urine samples were treated by basic hydrolysis to degrade all pesticides, metabolites, and their conjugates containing the intact moieties completely to the corresponding dichloroanilines. After addition of the internal standard 4-chloro-2-methylaniline, simultaneous steam distillation extraction (SDE) followed by liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) was carried out to produce, concentrate and purify the dichloroaniline moieties. Gas chromatography (GC) with mass spectrometric (MS) and tandem mass spectrometric (MS-MS) detection and also detection with an electron-capture detector (ECD) after derivatisation with heptafluorobutyric anhydride (HFBA) were employed for separation, detection, and identification. Limit of detection of the GC-MS-MS and the GC-ECD methods was 0.03 and 0.05 microg/l, respectively. Absolute recoveries obtained from a urine sample spiked with the internal standard, 3,5-, and 3,4-DCA, ranged from 93 to 103% with 9-18% coefficient of variation. The three detection techniques were compared concerning their performance, expenditure and suitability for their application in human biomonitoring studies. The described procedure has been successfully applied for the determination of 3,4- and 3,5-DCA in the urine of nonoccupationally exposed volunteers. The 3,4-DCA levels in these urine samples ranged between 0.13 and 0.34 microg/g creatinine or 0.11 and 0.56 microg/l, while those for 3,5-DCA were between 0.39 and 3.33 microg/g creatinine or 0.17 and 1.17 microg/l.

A sensitive and reliable method is described for the determination of aromatic and chlorinated hydrocarbons (benzene, toluene, o-, m-, p-xylene, trichloromethane, trichloroethane, trichloroethene and tetrachloroethene) in indoor and outdoor air at environmental concentration levels. The procedure can be easily extended to other VOCs. Using passive samplers the VOCs have been adsorbed onto charcoal during a four-week sampling period and subsequently desorbed with carbon disulfide. After injection with a cold split-splitless multi-injector the VOCs have been separated by capillary gas chromatography. Quantification has been achieved using an electron capture detector (ECD) and a flame ionization detector (FID) switched in series. A limit of about 1 μg/m3 for aromatic hydrocarbons and of about 0.01 μg/m3 for chlorinated hydrocarbons has been obtained. The procedure has been successfully applied in the framework of a field study to measure indoor and outdoor air concentrations in Essen and Borken, two differently polluted areas of Northrhine-Westphalia.

Published in the series Analyses of Hazardous Substances in Biological Materials, Vol. 7 (2000) The article contains sections titled: General principles Equipment, chemicals and solutions Equipment Chemicals Solutions Calibration standards Specimen collection and sample preparation Operational parameters Operational conditions for liquid chromatography Operational conditions for the flow injection system Operational conditions for atomic absorption spectrometry Principle of the HPLC method Analytical determination Calibration Calculation of the analytical result Standardisation and quality control Reliability of the method Precision Accuracy Detection limits Sources of error Discussion of the method Keywords: determination in urine; liquid chromatography; hydride AAS; analysis in biological materials; occupational monitoring; analytical method; biomarker; metabolites

Published in the series Analyses of Hazardous Substances in Biological Materials, Vol. 7 (2000) The article contains sections titled: Summary Equipment, chemicals and solutions Equipment Chemicals Solutions Calibration standards Specimen collection and sample preparation Specimen collection UV digestion Operational parameters Analytical determination Calibration and calculation of the analytical result Standardisation and quality control Reliability of the method Precision Accuracy Detection limit Sources of error Discussion of the method Keywords: determination in urine; inductively coupled plasma sector field mass spectrometry; ICP-MS; analysis in biological materials; occupational monitoring; analytical method; biomarker; metabolites

Published in the series Biomonitoring Methods, Vol. 11 (2007) The article contains sections titled: General principles Equipment, chemicals and solutions Equipment Chemicals Solutions Calibration standards Specimen collection and sample preparation Sample preparation Operational parameters Analytical determination Calibration Calculation of the analytical result Standardisation and quality control Evaluation of the method Precision Accuracy Detection limits Sources of error Discussion of the method Keywords: determination in urine; inductively coupled plasma sector field mass spectrometry; ICP-MS; analysis in biological materials; occupational monitoring; analytical method; biomarker; metabolites

Seventeen persons (2 women and 15 men), who were exposed to glycolethers in a varnish production plant, were examined according to their external and internal solvent exposure. The workers in the production plant (n = 12) were exposed to average concentrations of ethoxyethanol, ethoxyethyl acetate, butoxyethanol, 1-methoxypropanol-2, 2-methoxypropyl-1-acetate and xylene of 2.8; 2.7; 1.1; 7.0; 2.8 and 1.7 ppm. In the air of the store (n = 3) and in the laboratory (n = 2) only minor concentrations of xylene respectively xylene and ethoxyethyl acetate could be measured. Internal exposure was estimated by measuring butoxyethanol (BE) in blood as well as ethoxyacetic acid (EAA) and butoxyacetic acid (BAA) in urine samples. Urine samples were taken pre- and post-shift. As expected, the highest values were found in the varnish production. The average post shift concentrations of BE, EAA and BAA were 121.3 micrograms/l; 167.8 and 10.5 mg/l. The relatively high concentrations of EAA and BAA in pre-shift samples can be explained by the long half-lives of these metabolites. According to our findings most of the glycolethers were taken up through the skin. Comparing our results with those reported in the literature we think that a future tolerable limit value for the concentration of ethoxyacetic acid in urine should be in the order of 100 to 200 mg/l.

A static capillary gas chromatographic method using three different detectors [photoionization detector (PID), electron capture detector (ECD) and flame ionization detector (FID)] switched in series is presented for the determination of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in sub microgram l-1 levels. The method was applied for the analysis of selected environmentally and occupationally relevant non-halogenated and chlorinated aromatic hydrocarbons (e.g., benzene, toluene, xylenes, dichlorobenzenes) as well as chlorinated aliphatic hydrocarbons (e.g., trichloroethene, tetrachloroethene) in blood samples. Detailed investigations, in respect to the figures of merit were carried out. For most of the selected VOCs detection limits (calculated as the three-fold standard deviation of low level calibration standards) in the range from 26 (benzene) to 67 ng l-1 (m/p-xylene) were achieved which are comparable with those reported for dynamic headspace techniques in combination with mass spectrometric detection. For the individual VOCs the within-series precision varied from 4 to 19% and the day-to-day precision from 11 to 28%. Regarding PID as well as FID the calibration graphs for all substances were linear up to at least 10 micrograms l-1 while the ECD response was linear up to concentrations of about 0.6 microgram l-1 for the halogenated compounds. Our method is applicable for the quantitative determination of VOCs in blood in the occupationally as well as in the physiologically relevant (normal) concentration range.

A simple, rapid and reliable method is presented for the determination of butoxyacetic acid (BAA), the main metabolite of ethylene glycol monobutyl ether (Butyl Cellosolve). The urine is acidified with hydrochloric acid and passed through a cation-exchange column. BAA which is quantitatively found in the filtrate is subsequently adsorbed on XAD-4 resin. After desorption with diethyl ether an aliquot of the eluate is evaporated in a nitrogen stream and methylated with diazomethane in diethyl ether. A forty-fold enrichment is achieved by this procedure. The gas-chromatographic separation is performed on a 60 m fused silica capillary column DB-1 (100% dimethyl-polysiloxane). Flame ionization is used for detection. Pentoxyacetic acid (PAA) serves as internal standard. The detection limit of BAA in urine is 0.02 mg/l. Linearity has been tested up to 50 mg/l. The losses by the clean-up steps are between 10.0% and 22.7%. The average recovery is 100.9%. Within-series imprecision (n=10) has been determined for three concentrations and ranges between 4.8% and 12.6%.