Headspace solid-phase microextraction procedure for gas-chromatography analysis of toluene in urine

• Autor(a) principal: Netto,Diego C.
• Data de Publicação: 2008
• Outros Autores: Reis,Rafael M., Mendes,Camila B., Gomes,Paulo C. F. L., Martins,Isarita, Siqueira,Maria Elisa P. B.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Journal of the Brazilian Chemical Society (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0103-50532008000600022
• topic: urinary toluene; HS-SPME; sample preparation; gas-chromatography

Toluene is widely used in industrial and laboratory applications and in many countries is related with social problems of abuse. Unaltered urinary toluene was introduced as a bioindicator of occupational exposure to the solvent, but its analysis presents difficulties due to the low levels of the compound excreted in urine. A gas-chromatography/flame ionization method for toluene in urine is described using headspace solid-phase microextraction and establishing the better conditions for two different extracting phases: polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and carboxen-PDMS. The carboxen-PDMS fiber showed lower quantifying limit (12.5 ng mL-1), better extraction efficiency (up to 28.1%) and repeatability (CV < 4.9%) than PDMS coating. The method was applied to analysis of toluene in urine of workers from car repair shops exposed to low solvent levels.