[Methodological aspects in environmental and biological monitoring of exposure to low doses of benzene: problems and possible solutions]

This paper aims to examine some methods to measure human exposure to benzene, both in life and occupational environments, through environmental and biological monitoring, examining the critical issues and optimal conditions of use. The overall performance of environmental monitoring, from the analytical point of view, strongly depend on the choice of an appropriate method of sampling and analysis. Urinary SPMA and t, t-MA are the biomarkers listed by ACGIH to evaluate occupational exposure: most of the recent studies use HPLC with tandem mass spectrometry, but since t, t-MA is present in the urine in larger quantities it is also determinable with UV detectors. The urinary benzene is an index not officially included in the list of the ACGIH BEIs, but it is useful to assess exposure and benzene at low concentrations, that most frequently are found today in the occupational and life environments.