New Gas Chromatographic/Mass Spectrometric Method for Ortho-Cresol Detection in Urine

The Brazilian Regulatory Norms (NR) establishes safety conditions for workers. However, many analytical parameters are outdated, and toxicological analyses are complemented by international standards. Since toluene is present in the most common footwear activities, workers in this area need an effective biomonitoring method concerning this chemical agent. Ortho-cresol is one of the metabolites from toluene biotransformation, which due to its specificity and selectivity is recommended by the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) as a reference biomarker. For detection of ortho-cresol in urine, we proposed an analytical method using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) with Solid Phase Extraction (SPE). This method was shown to be an efficient laboratorial analysis, able to detect low concentrations of ortho-cresol. SPE has shown better efficiency when compared to SPME, generating a more specific analytical method to detect toluene exposure. This validated bioanalytical method is an assay category II, with specificity and limit of detection parameters in accordance to ANVISA. Keywords: Biomonitoring; Toluene; Ortho-Cresol; GC/MS, SP