Comparing liquid-liquid, solid-phase, and supported-liquid extraction for the determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in serum samples and their application for human biomonitoring

摘要

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a class of persistent organic pollutants of great health concern. Epidemiological and animal studies have revealed the carcinogenic and mutagenic risk of PAHs, and therefore avoiding PAH exposure is a high priority. In this work, a comparison of liquid-liquid, solid-phase, and supported -liquid extraction was conducted for detecting PAHs in serum samples. The key features of mechanism, simplicity, recoveries, and background interference were compared for the three procedures. Solid-phase and supported -liquid extraction showed chromatography background interference and required method optimization to obtain satisfactory recoveries that were comparable to that of liquid-liquid extraction. Liquid-liquid extraction with hexane and high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with a fluorescence detection was employed for detecting PAHs in serum samples. The limits of quantification of the individual PAHs ranged from 16.0 ng/L to 40.0 ng/L, and recoveries were obtained from 69.6 % to 87.7 %. The method was used for human bio-monitoring of the target PAHs in the serum of 120 volunteers from Guangzhou. The mean total PAH concen-tration in the serum of adults (2.60 mu g/L) was significantly higher than that of teenagers (1.69 mu g/L). The total estimated daily intake of PAHs was calculated for naphthalene, fluorene, and phenanthrene, and a low health risk was obtained by the evaluation of their non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risks.

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