Application of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry for the determination of urinary ethylenethiourea in humans

Ethylenethiourea (ETU) is a major metabolite of ethylenebisdithiocarbamate pesticides: a sensitive and specific assay for its determination in human urine is proposed below. ETU is extracted on a diatomaceous earth column using dichloromethane and derivatized with the mixture of N-(tert-butyldimethylsilyl)-N-methyltrifluoroacetamide and tert-butyldimethyilsilyl chloride. The derivative is analyzed using GC/MS in the EI/SIM mode. The whole procedure is carried out in the presence of ethylenethiourea-d4 as internal standard. The analytical features of the method are: high specificity, >90% recovery, range of linearity 0–200 μg/L, within- and between-run precision as coefficient of variation, <17 and <20%, respectively, limit of quantification 2 μg/L. In specimens stored in the dark at −20 °C ETU is stable for at least 6 months. The procedure was successfully applied to the biological monitoring of vineyard workers exposed to EBDTC and of a matched group of subjects from the general population.