Monitoring exposure to simple epoxides and alkenes through gas chromatographic determination of hemoglobin adducts.

A method for monitoring exposure to ethylene oxide (EO) and propylene oxide (PO) and their corresponding alkenes through the analysis of adducts to N-terminal valine in hemoglobin (Hb) using gas chromatography (GC) and electron-capture detection has been developed. The method is a further development of the so-called N-alkyl Edman method, which has thus far been carried out using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The correlation between GC and GC/MS determinations of adduct levels in human samples was found to be good. The newly developed GC method enables the determination of adducts to Hb from EO and PO down to levels of about 100 pmol/g globin. This adduct level corresponds to the expected increment from ethene in inhaled tobacco smoke in a smoker of about 10 cigarettes/day or from an average exposure to about 50 ppb EO or 1 ppm PO during working hours.