Simultaneous determination of the full chlorophenol spectrum in human urine using gas chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry.

The determination of chlorophenols in urine is an established approach for the assessment of human exposure to these ubiquitous environmental pollutants. However, an analytical procedure which enables the separate determination of all components of this substance group was still lacking. For this task we developed a method using enzymatic hydrolysis, solid phase extraction, derivatisation with bis(trimethylsilyl)trifluoroacetamide and gas chromatography-tandem-mass spectrometry with isotope dilution. The chromatographic conditions provided baseline separation of all 19 chlorophenol derivatives. Precision within series did not exceed 15% although for urinary concentrations of 1 μg L