SENSITIVE DETERMINATION OF ELEVEN PHENOLIC ENDOCRINE-DISRUPTING CHEMICALS IN HUMAN URINE USING GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY/MASS SPECTROMETRY -SELECTED ION MONITORING

I improved an analytical method for determining trace amounts of eleven phenolic endocrine-disrupting chemicals (11 phenolic EOCs) in human urine. The 11 phenolic EOCs were subjected to hydrolysis and then to solid phase extraction with a XAD-4 column. Alkylphenols, chlorophenols, and bisphenol A in XAD-4 column were eluted with acetonitrile, and the eluate was concentrated under a nitrogen stream, and then tert-butyldimethylsilylation. Separation and determination were done by gas chromatography, using mass spectrometry operating in the selective ion monitoring mode for quantitation. For tert-butyldimethylsily (TBDMS) derivatization the recoveries were $91.2{\sim}125.9%$, the limits of quantitation (LOQ) for the 11 phenolic EOCs in the nanogram-per-milliliter range ($0.025{\sim}1.000\;ng/mL$) were thus achieved by using 1 mL of urine, and the SIM responses were linear with the correlation coefficient varying by $0.9300{\sim}0.9943$. Based on the results for urine samples from unexposed individuals, 4-tert-octylphenol and pentachlorophenol were detected in hydrolysed urine sample. Other alkylphenols, chlorophenols and bisphenol A were not detected.