[Determination of mercapturic acid in urine samples for the monitoring of occupational exposure to xenobiotics].

The determination of mercapturic acids in urine samples of employees exposed to carcinogenic substances requires highly sensitive and specific methods such as GC/MS or HPLC/Fluorimetry. We applied GC/MS to the analysis of thiodiglycolic acid, which is an indicator metabolite of vinyl chloride exposure and of S-phenylmercapturic acid which can be used to control benzene exposure. S-cyanoethylmercapturic acid appears as a degradation product during acrylonitrile metabolism. This metabolite can be determined by HPLC combined with a sulfur specific fluorimetric detector. This procedure which is of general use offers the possibility to improve the biological monitoring in case of exposures to carcinogenic substances.