Environmental monitoring and human exposure assessment using immunochemical techniques

Abstract

The use of immunochemical technologies including, but not limited to, immunoassays is expanding to include various aspects of environmental analysis. Ultimately, the basis for environmental investigations is concern about human and ecological exposure to potentially toxic compounds. In addition to the well-described attributes of immunochemical methods (ease of use, cost savings, reduced use of organic solvents), these methods also provide a direct and sensitive analytical process for determining human exposure to analytes of interest. Levels of toxic compounds to which humans are exposed are typically very low. Often, the target compounds in exposure studies are products of xenobiotic metabolism and are difficult to analyze by traditional chromatographic methods due to in vivo conjugation and a high molecular weight. To determine human exposure, large-scale surveys of various environmental matrices and body fluids must be designed and implemented. The implementation must consider several analytical and economic criteria: sensitivity, selectivity, cost and sample throughput. Immunochemical methods are well suited to these analytical rigors and their use is described herein.