Abstract
High-throughput screening of samples is the strategy of choice to detect occupational exposure biomarkers, yet it requires a user-friendly apparatus that gives relatively prompt results while ensuring high degrees of selectivity, precision, accuracy and automation, particularly in the preparation process. Miniaturization has attracted much attention in analytical chemistry and has driven solvent and sample savings as easier automation, the latter thanks to the introduction on the market of the three axis autosampler. In light of the above, this contribution describes a novel user-friendly solid-phase microextraction (SPME) off- and on-line platform coupled with gas chromatography and triple quadrupole-mass spectrometry to determine urinary metabolites of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons 1- and 2-hydroxy-naphthalene, 9-hydroxy-phenanthrene, 1-hydroxy-pyrene, 3- and 9-hydroxy-benzoantracene, and 3-hydroxy-benzo[a]pyrene. In this new procedure, chromatography’s sensitivity is combined with the user-friendliness of N-tert-butyldimethylsilyl-N-methyltrifluoroacetamide on-fiber SPME derivatization using direct immersion sampling; moreover, specific isotope-labelled internal standards provide quantitative accuracy. The detection limits for the seven OH-PAHs ranged from 0.25 to 4.52 ng/L. Intra-(from 2.5 to 3.0%) and inter-session (from 2.4 to 3.9%) repeatability was also evaluated. This method serves to identify suitable risk-control strategies for occupational hygiene conservation programs.
Highlights
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) are ubiquitous, despite their danger to humans
Several OH-PAHs have been suggested as urinary biomarkers to estimate PAH exposure
The profile of PAHs depends on their emission source, and extrapolation of its presence would be imprecise
Summary
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) are ubiquitous, despite their danger to humans. PAHs can be found in both gaseous and particulate forms. The latter are considered very hazardous to human health; many of the studies on the effects of air pollution have correlated solid aerosols with PAHs. Molecules 2018, 23, 1869; doi:10.3390/molecules23081869 www.mdpi.com/journal/molecules. Outdoor air pollution in both cities and rural areas was estimated to cause 4.2 million premature deaths worldwide in 2016 [2], mainly attributable to airborne particulate matter (PM) [3,4]. The Institute of Occupational Medicine [7] estimated that in 2006 in the EU there were 234,000 workers who were potentially exposed to high levels of B[a]P and about seven million to low levels.
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