Quantification of persistent organic pollutants in human whole blood samples using stir bar sorptive extraction coupled with GC/MS/MS and isotope dilution mass spectrometry

Abstract

Stir-bar sorptive extraction has been proven an effective and green extraction method for persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in aqueous samples such as drinking water, wastewater, and human serum. In this study, a method was developed to quantify POPs in human whole blood samples using stir bar sorptive extraction-thermal desorption-GC/MS/MS-isotope dilution mass spectrometry (IDMS). This method enables accurate, precise, and sensitive quantification of POPs in human whole blood samples. Compared with calibration curves, IDMS provided measurements with a higher level of accuracy and precision, especially at lower measured concentrations. The use of GC/MS/MS enabled a lower limit of quantification compared with GC/MS methods. A reverse-IDMS method was performed in this study to further eliminate biases from the labelled concentrations of the commercially available standards. Ten human whole blood samples were analyzed using this validated method. On average, 10 POPs were detected in each blood sample. Naphthalene, α-HCH, DDD, DDE were detected in all ten blood samples, whereas benzo[a]anthracene, chrysene, benzo[k]fluoranthene, and chlorpyrifos were detected in none of the ten samples. The mean xenobiotic body-burden was also calculated for each sample and ranged from 0.719 to 1.12 ng/g with a mean value of 0.897 ng/g.