Determination of thiocyanate (biomarkers of ETS) and other inorganic ions in human nasal discharge samples using ion chromatography.

Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) is a mixture of air and tobacco smoke containing more than 4000 chemical substances. In view of the health risks of many of these substances, studies are needed to determine biomarkers of exposure to ETS constituents in people who actively or passively are exposed to the toxic compounds. The methodologies for determining most biomarkers from saliva, urine and blood samples are known, but methods for analyzing these compounds in nasal discharges are not available. The objective of this work was to develop an analytical procedure for the determination of thiocyanate and other biomarker compounds in samples of nasal discharge using ion chromatography.