Methods for the analysis of PCBs in human food, faeces and serum

A method was developed to determine trace concentrations of a range of indi vidual PCB congeners in biological samples (serum, food and faeces) using G C-MS, to prepare a mass balance of PCBs in humans. A simple method for the analysis of PCBs in human serum, which excluded an extraction step, was fir st employed. Results indicated that the recoveries of C-13(12) PCB spikes w ere variable. A soxhlet extraction step was added and was found to be effic ient and reproducible. A quality control routine and method validation resu lts are presented. In batch tests of the methods presented it was found tha t the serum analysis method gave within batch mean C-13(12) spike recoverie s of 98 - 120% and standard deviations between 6 and 20%. The food/faeces a nalysis method gave within-batch mean C-13(12) Spike recoveries of 88 - 100 %, and within batch standard deviations between 4 and 12%. The batch to bat ch mean recovery for serum analysis was 100%, with an RSD of 9% for high sp ikes and 10% for low spikes. For food/faeces analysis the batch to batch av erage recovery was 110%, with an RSD of 5% for high spikes and 9% for low s pikes.