Overview of Analytical Methodologies for Dioxin Analysis

Abstract

Poly(chlorinated) dibenzo‐p‐dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDDs/PCDFs) are persistent organic pollutants which are globally distributed in practically all environmental compartments and which exert a broad spectrum of toxic and biochemical effects. Humans are exposed to these compounds mainly through the diet with food of animal origin usually being the predominant source.

Multiple step isolation and clean up procedures are necessary to determine trace levels of these analytes in complex environmental and biological samples. This article reviews some of the recent developments in the extraction procedures, such as SFE, PLE, HS‐SPME, MAE, SCWE, ASE; clean‐up areas and instrumental analysis of dioxins in biological/environmental samples. Due to its specificity and sensitivity gas chromatography coupled with high resolution mass spectrometry (GC–HRMS), high‐resolution gas chromatography high‐resolution mass spectrometry (HRGC‐HRMS), or GC‐MS/GC techniques have been extensively applied to environmental, medicinal, and biological studies.

Keywords:

• Dioxins
• benzofurans
• toxic equivalent schemes
• human health risk
• extraction
• immunochemical analysis