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Automated analysis of perfluorinated compounds in human hair and urine samples by turbulent flow chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry

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Abstract

Perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) are ubiquitous contaminants of humans and animals worldwide. PFCs are bioaccumulated because of their affinity for proteins. It has been shown they could have a variety of toxicological effects and cause damage to human health, emphasizing the need for sensitive and robust analytical methods to assess their bioaccumulation in humans. In this paper we report the development and validation of an analytical method for analysis of PFCs in the non-invasive human matrices hair and urine. The method is based on rapid and simple sample pre-treatment followed by online turbulent flow liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry (TFC–LC–MS–MS) for analysis of 21 PFCs. The method was validated for both matrices. Percentage recovery was between 60 and 105 for most compounds in both matrices. Limits of quantification ranged from 0.1 to 9 ng mL−1 in urine and from 0.04 to 13.4 in hair. The good performance of the method was proved by investigating the presence of selected PFCs in 24 hair and 30 urine samples from different donors living in Barcelona (NE Spain). The results were indicative of bioaccumulation of these compounds in both types of sample. PFOS and PFOA were most frequently detected in hair and PFBA in urine.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, through projects SCARCE Consolider- Ingenio 2010 CSD2009-00065 and CEMAGUA (CGL2007-64551/HID), and by King Saud University grant number (KSU-VPP-105).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Chemistry, IDAEA-CSIC, 08034, Barcelona, Spain

    Francisca Perez, Marta Llorca, Marinella Farré & Damià Barceló

  2. Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA), 17003, Girona, Spain

    Damià Barceló

  3. King Saud University, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia

    Damià Barceló

Authors
  1. Francisca Perez
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  2. Marta Llorca
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  3. Marinella Farré
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  4. Damià Barceló
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marinella Farré.

Additional information

Published in the special issue Mass Spectrometry in Spain with guest editors José Miguel Vadillo and Damià Barceló.

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Perez, F., Llorca, M., Farré, M. et al. Automated analysis of perfluorinated compounds in human hair and urine samples by turbulent flow chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry. Anal Bioanal Chem 402, 2369–2378 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-011-5660-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-011-5660-5

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