Immunoassay as a screening tool for industrial toxicants.

Immunoassay techniques may represent useful screening tools to assist analysts interested in the presence and amounts of organic toxicants in biological fluids. The widespread application of immunoassay methods in medicinal and forensic (drugs of abuse) chemistry has resulted in such screening methodologies. Four methodologies of potential benefit are considered: the free radical assay technique, the enzyme-mediated immunoassay technique, radioimmunoassay, and hemagglutination. Each of these immunoassays is based on the competitive displacement of the labeled drug (or toxicant) from the antibody complex by the unlabeled drug-toxicant in the sample.