Analytical Capabilities for Evaluation of Population Exposure to Environmental Pollutants

Efrat Rorman, National Public Health Laboratory, Ministry of Health, Tel Aviv, Israel (efrat.rorman@phlta.health.gov.il)
Tamar Berman, Environmental Health Department, Ministry Of Health, Jerusalem, Israel
Elza Nelkenbaum, National Public Health Laboratory, Ministry Of Health, Tel Aviv, Israel
Elena Rabinovich, National Public Health Laboratory, Ministry Of Health, Tel Aviv, Israel
Sonia Shuster, National Public Health Laboratory, Ministry Of Health, Tel Aviv, Israel
Yamit Naor, National Public Health Laboratory, Ministry Of Health, Tel Aviv, Israel
Luda Groisman, National Public Health Laboratory, Ministry Of Health, Tel Aviv, Israel

Human Biomonitoring (HBM) is a powerful tool for evaluating population exposure to environmental pollutants. In the past, the Ministry of Health (MOH) and other researchers collaborated with international laboratories in order to conduct HBM for population research, risk assessment and policy making. Last year, the National Public Health Laboratory (NPHL) began developing HBM capacity to measure low level exposure to environmental chemicals in the general public.

As an initial step, development of an analytical method to detect cotinine in urine was completed. Cotinine is a main metabolite of nicotine in mammalian urine, used as a marker of active tobacco smoking and exposure to environmental tobacco smoke which is a major public health concern. Analysis of cotinine includes extraction of cotinine from urine samples, spiked with isotope labeled cotinine followed by GC/MS/MS analysis. Following validation quantification limit was determined at 1 µg/L, accuracy and precision for low and mid-concentration values were 111% and 3.1% and 98% and 3.2%, respectfully. About 100 urine samples were already tested for cotinine. Currently, new methods for analysis of metals in urine and blood using ICP-MS and organophosphates pesticides in urine using GCQ are being developed in NPHL.

As the NPHL currently monitors pollutants in the environment (drinking water, wastewater), adding HBM capabilities can provide insights on the relationship between occurrence of chemicals in the environment and human exposures in the general public.