Determination of chlorophenols in urine of children and suggestion of reference values

During the course of a human biomonitoring project (Biebesheim in Hessen, Germany) we elaborated a simple but sensitive method for the determination of tri- (TCP), tetra- (TeCP) and pentachlorophenol (PCP) in human urine. Urine samples, spiked with internal standards, were treated by acid hydrolysis. After a steam bath distillation the distillates were extracted using solid phase extraction. Derivatization of the chlorophenols was not carried out. GC/ECD system was used for detection. Detection limits of the chlorophenols were found in the range of 0.02 μg/L urine (detection limits of the ECD: 0.52 to 2.76 μg/L). By this method mono- and dichlorophenols cannot be detected. We investigated 24h-urine samples of 339 pupils (age 10 to 12 years). The children live either in the surroundings of a hazardous waste incinerator (SVA) in Biebesheim (n = 193), or controls (i.e. regions without waste incinerator) in the non polluted areas of Odenwald (n = 90) and Rheintal (n = 56). Between these three groups we did not find statistically significant differences in chlorophenol concentrations of the urine samples. The 95-percentiles of the analyzed samples are 0.74 μg/L (2,3,4-TCP), 1.24 μg/L (2,3,5-TCP), 0.70 μg/L (2,3,6–TCP), 1.10 μg/L (2,4,5–TCP), 1.74 μg/L (2,4,6–TCP), 2.84 μg/L (3,4,5–TCP), 4.78 μg/L (2,3,4,5-TeCP), 1.86 μg/L (2,3,4,6-TeCP), 2.90 μg/L (2,3,5,6-TeCP) and 4.39 μg/L (PCP).