Analysis of Toxicants by Gas Chromatography

Chromatography is an analytical technique which has been used for isolation, purification and separation of organic and inorganic compounds including qualitative and quantitative estimation of compounds. Basically, there are two types of chromatography. One is liquid chromatography and other is Gas chromatography. The chromatography was discovered in 1906 and gas chromatography was developed by Tshett in 1950s. Generally, in GC the mobile phases are gases such as helium (He), or Nitrogen (N2). GC depends upon temperature programming and boiling point of the compounds. The volatile organic compounds (VOCs), poly-aromatic hydrocarbon and pesticides have been analysed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometric technique. In this chapter, we present a review of existing analytical methodology for the environmental and biological monitoring of exposure to toxicants. In an effort to provide a more concise exploration of existing toxicants bio-monitoring methodology that is relevant today. In addition, as much of the toxicants analysis work involving effective dose measurements is its infancy (adduct measurements) or do not provide sensitive indicators of exposure, All these methods are in use but some form of chromatography, but the detection systems range from simple UV absorbance detection to sophisticated mass spectrometric analyses. These methods possess limits of detection (LODs) that span a wide range; some are suitable for only occupational or forensic applications while those with LODs near or lower than the low-μg/ l are useful for detecting incidental environmental exposures. In addition, these methods have been used to measure toxicants and/or their metabolites in a variety of matrices including urine, serum, breast milk, saliva, and post-partum meconium.