G. Khoschsorur et W. Petek, Rapid determination of benzene metabolites phenol and p-cresol in the urine of petrol station workers by gas chromatography, ANAL SCI, 16(6), 2000, pp. 589-591
The determination of phenol and p-cresol in urine has been suggested as a s
uitable biomarker far the monitoring of benzene exposure of pump workers em
ployed in petrol stations. A method for efficiently extracting a wide varie
ty of drugs from urine far toxicological analysis by gas chromatography is
presented. The sensitivity of the method is sufficient to monitor normal le
vels of phenol and p-cresol after exposure to benzene vapors. The detection
limit of the method is low enough to measure urinary phenol and p-cresol a
t a concentration of 0.1 mg/l. The overall recoveries of urinary phenol and
p-cresol relative to the internal standard, DPA, ranged between 95 and 96.
5%. Our gas chromatographic method is a rapid, precise and economical one s
uitable to measure the metabolite benzene also in routine monitoring of phe
nol and p-cresol.