PRELIMINARY EXPERIMENTS FOR THE ANALYSIS OF TETRAHYDROTETROLS OF BENZ[A]ANTHRACENE AND BENZO[A]PYRENE DERIVED FROM THEIR HEMOGLOBIN ADDUCTSUSING A COUPLED-COLUMN HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHIC SYSTEM

Improved technologies for the detection of polycyclic aromatic hydroca rbon adducts are required for human biomonitoring. Therefore, a couple d-column high-performance liquid chromatographic method, with system-i ntegrated sample processing, has been developed and its applicability for determination of tetrahydrotetrols of polycyclic aromatic hydrocar bons in acid hydrolysates of human hemoglobin has been investigated. A novel column-switching technique applying 'thermotransfer' is used to separate tetrahydrotetrols of benzo[a]pyrene and benz[a]anthracene mo re efficiently. Derivatives of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from b lood hydrolysates are concentrated on a pre-column and then transferre d to the analytical column by applying an electrical current to heat t he solvent eluting the pre-column. This method allows for rapid and qu antitative transfer of the analytes from the pre-column to the analyti cal column, after HPLC-integrated sample processing.