STATIC HEADSPACE ANALYSIS BY GC-MS (IN SIM MODE) TO DETERMINE THE BENZENE IN HUMAN TISSUES

Abstract

An analytical method to determine benzene in human tissues by headspace gas chromatography coupled with a mass selective detector was developed. The proposed method results very sensitive and reproducible. It allows to determine very low benzene concentrations in the human tissues using a limited sample amount (50–70 mg). The minimum detection limit was of about 10 ng g⁻¹ with a relative standard deviation ≤ 14.0%. The benzene concentration in the analyzed tissue samples, with different pathologies, ranges between 0.020 and 11.70 μg g⁻¹ with relative standard deviation ≤ 6.0%. The results show that the benzene could be accumulated into human tissues, particularly the human organs from patients affected by cancer which present a higher benzene concentration than one in the same tissues withdrawn from patients with no-tumoral pathologies.

Keywords:

• Benzene
• Headspace analysis
• Mass selective detector
• Forensic science
• Human tissues

Acknowledgments