BIOLOGICAL MONITORING OF POLYCHLORINATED-BIPHENYLS IN PLASMA - A COMPARISON OF ENZYME-LINKED-IMMUNOSORBENT-ASSAY AND GAS-CHROMATOGRAPHY DETECTION METHODS

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are ubiquitous and persistent environ mental compounds. Exposure of workers handling these materials can be assessed by biological monitoring. We have compared the concentration of PCBs in the plasma of exposed workers as measured by gas chromatogr aphy with electron capture detection (mean = 40.9 ng ml(-1), range = 6 .7-120.3 ng ml(-1)) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) (mea n = 47.1 ng ml(-1), range = 6.8-186.2 ng ml(-1)). There was a good ove rall correlation between the two methods (n = 28, r = 0.92). We conclu de that an ELISA is a useful screening tool for biological monitoring purposes where there is not immediate access to standard analytical eq uipment or where a very high throughput of samples is required.