Comparing liquid-liquid, solid-phase, and supported-liquid extraction for the determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in serum samples and their application for human biomonitoring

Abstract

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a class of persistent organic pollutants of great health concern. Epidemiological and animal studies have revealed the carcinogenic and mutagenic risk of PAHs, and therefore avoiding PAH exposure is a high priority. In this work, a comparison of liquid-liquid, solid-phase, and supported-liquid extraction was conducted for detecting PAHs in serum samples. The key features of mechanism, simplicity, recoveries, and background interference were compared for the three procedures. Solid-phase and supported-liquid extraction showed chromatography background interference and required method optimization to obtain satisfactory recoveries that were comparable to that of liquid-liquid extraction. Liquid-liquid extraction with hexane and high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with a fluorescence detection was employed for detecting PAHs in serum samples. The limits of quantification of the individual PAHs ranged from 16.0 ng/L to 40.0 ng/L, and recoveries were obtained from 69.6 % to 87.7 %. The method was used for human biomonitoring of the target PAHs in the serum of 120 volunteers from Guangzhou. The mean total PAH concentration in the serum of adults (2.60 μg/L) was significantly higher than that of teenagers (1.69 μg/L). The total estimated daily intake of PAHs was calculated for naphthalene, fluorene, and phenanthrene, and a low health risk was obtained by the evaluation of their non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risks.