Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are ubiquitous carcinogenic substances to which man is exposed in the environment and at certain workplaces. Estimation of the resulting health risk is therefore of great occupational-medical and environmental-medical importance. Determination of the DNA and protein adducts of PAHs is the most suitable way of estimating this risk. The analytical methods used thus far, above all, 32P postlabeling, immunoassays, and synchronous fluorescence spectroscopy, are, however, too nonspecific; therefore, the results lack accuracy and are not comparable with one another. Only the use of very specific methods of instrumental analysis [above all, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and gas chromatography/ mass spectrometry (GC/MS)] can counteract this deficit. However, these methods can successfully be used mainly to determine the protein adducts of PAHs. Hemoglobin adducts, for example, do not have repair mechanisms like DNA adducts. They therefore occur in higher concentrations and can thus be analytically detected more easily. At present, mainly the monohydroxylated metabolites of PAHs are being determined in urine with great success. Using specific enrichment methods and HPLC with fluorescence detection it is even possible today to determine the internal PAH exposure of the general population. The detection limits lie in the lower nanogram-per-liter range. In view of the importance of this group of substances, determination of PAH adducts and the detection of their metabolites in urine will remain at the center of future occupational-medical and environmental-medical/toxicological research. In general, the lack of reference substances must be lamented.

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The concentrations of 1-hydroxypyrene (1-HOPYR), and 1-, 2-, 3-, and 4-hydroxyphenanthrene (HOPHE) as metabolites of pyrene and phenanthrene, were measured in urine samples collected from 124 housewives (27 smokers and 97 non-smokers) living in Bottrop, an industrial city located in the Ruhr area in Germany. The urine samples were analyzed by a very sensitive and practical high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method using a two-column switching technique and a special precolumn packing material followed by fluorescence detection. The polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) metabolites are selectively enrichéd on the precolumn and separated from the matrix. Therefore, laborious clean-up steps were omitted. The above-mentioned PAH metabolites could be detected in all urine samples investigated. Smokers had significantly higher urine concentrations of 1-HOPYR (median 0.48 microgram/g creatinine), 3-HOPHE (median 0.61 microgram/g creatinine), 2-HOPHE (0.41 microgram/g creatinine) and 4-HOPHE (median 0.10 microgram/g creatinine) than non-smokers (median 0.15 microgram/g creatinine, 0.31 microgram/g creatinine, 0.31 microgram/g creatinine and 0.04 microgram/g creatinine, respectively). The study shows that the influence of smoking is of such an order of magnitude that potential environmental exposure to PAH in this highly industrialized area is obscured by smoking habits. Furthermore, it can be concluded that the determination of 1-HOPYR, 1-, 2-, 3-, and 4-HOPHE in urine is a diagnostically useful method for the biological monitoring of persons environmentally exposed to PAH.

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