The detection and characterization of pesticides, industrial solvents and their metabolites in body fluids and tissues are important for evaluating the potential long term health effects of the exposed population. Current chromatographic methods for the analysis of these materials in biological systems are generally tedious, time-consuming, complex, or non-specific and lack sensitivity. The primary object of this project is to evaluate capillary supercritical fluid chromatographic (SFC) techniques for biological monitoring analysis of pesticides, industrial solvents and their metabolites of interest to NCI. These compounds are generally polar and thermally labile and capillary SFC promise to be advantageous for their analysis. ln Phase I, methods were developed using various supercritical fluids and capillary column stationary phases for the separation of several chlorinated and phosphonate pesticides, selected metabolites, and acrylonitrile solvent. ln Phase II, capillary SFC methods will be expanded for the analysis of pesticides and industrial solvent residues in body fluids, tissue, and excreta of rats or mice. Additionally, the potential chemical insult of these materials to mammalian genetic material will also be investigated in DNA binding studies. These studies will result in the expanded development of capillary SFC methods that can be used in assessing exposure effects of pesticides and industrial solvents in human populations.
