Rapid determination of benzene metabolites phenol and p-cresol in the urine of petrol station workers by gas chromatography

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.