Aromatic Compounds in Blood – Determination using Headspace Gas Chromatography with Mass Spectrometric Detection

Biomonitoring Method – Translation of the German version from 2018

  Thomas Göen¹ (Method development, Head of the working group “Analyses in Biological Materials” of the Permanent Senate Commission for the Investigation of Health Hazards of Chemical Compounds in the Work Area, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft)
Johannes Müller¹ (Method development)
Hans-Wolfgang Hoppe² (External verification)
  Andrea Hartwig³ (Chair of the Permanent Senate Commission for the Investigation of Health Hazards of Chemical Compounds in the Work Area, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft)
  MAK Commission<sup>4

1</sup> Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Institute and Outpatient Clinic of Occupational, Social, and Environmental Medicine, Schillerstraße 25 and 29, 91054 Erlangen, Germany
² Medical Laboratory Bremen, Haferwende 12, 28357 Bremen, Germany
³ Institute of Applied Biosciences, Department of Food Chemistry and Toxicology, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Adenauerring 20a, Building 50.41, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
⁴ Permanent Senate Commission for the Investigation of Health Hazards of Chemical Compounds in the Work Area, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Kennedyallee 40, 53175 Bonn, Germany

Abstract

The working group „Analyses in Biological Materials“ of the Permanent Senate Commission for the Investigation of Health Hazards of Chemical Compounds in the Work Area verified the presented biomonitoring method.

The here described analytical method enables the simultaneous determination of benzene, toluene, chlorobenzene, ethylbenzene, o‐xylene, m‐xylene, p‐xylene, styrene, n‐propylbenzene, isopropylbenzene (cumene), 1,2,3‐trimethylbenzene (hemimellitene), 1,2,4‐trimethylbenzene, 1,3,5‐trimethylbenzene (mesitylene) and 1,2,3,5‐tetramethylbenzene (isodurene) in blood. For determination, the blood samples are introduced into headspace vials. The vials are sealed and heated to 50 °C in the autosampler. Subsequently, an aliquot of the vapour phase is injected into the GC-system and analysed using mass spectrometry. Calibration standards are prepared in ovine blood and processed in the same way as the samples to be analysed.

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