Biological monitoring of workers exposed to 4,4-methylene-bis-(2-orthochloroaniline) (MOCA). I. A new and easy determination of free and total MOCA in urine

The objective of the study was to validate a new and simple method to determine MOCA in the urine of exposed workers. The separation, identification and quantification of urinary MOCA were performed in spiked urines by a sensitive and practical high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method and applied to urine samples of 11 workers occupationally exposed to MOCA; the postshift urinary levels of MOCA in their urine samples with and without hydrolysis, "total" and "free" MOCA respectively, were determined. In addition, we investigated the use of citric or sulfamic acid as preservatives of urine samples. The "total" and "free" MOCA were extracted with isooctane from hydrolysed and nonhydrolysed 20-ml urine samples respectively. After evaporation, the residue was dissolved in 4 ml of 2.10(-2) M aqueous hydrochloric acid and analysed by an isocratic HPLC system using both ultraviolet (UV) detection at 244 nm and electrochemical detection working in oxidation mode (0.9 V) with an Ag/AgCl reference electrode. Mobile phase (50% acetonitrile in water containing 0.4% acetate buffer solution pH = 4.6) was used to complete the 20-min analysis. "Free" and "total" MOCA were chromatographed on a reversed-phase C8 column (5 microns, 250 mm x 4 mm). The standard curve of MOCA was linear over the range 5-500 micrograms/l in human urine. The detection limit was 1 microgram/l for a 20-microliter injection volume; the repeatability ranged from 5.6 to 1.3% (n = 6) for spiked urines at 5 and 500 micrograms/l, with a percentage recovery of 94 +/- 3%. The reproducibility of the method was 7.3% (n = 4) for spiked urine at 10 micrograms/l. The use of sulfamic acid as a preservative of urine samples is important to improve the precision and accuracy of the analysis. The results indicate that these analytical procedures using conventional apparatus may be used routinely and reliably with large numbers of urine samples for biological monitoring of the exposure to MOCA. The occupational exposure to MOCA in some factories in France is studied in the second part of this work.