Simultaneous determination of bisphenols,benzophenones and parabens in human urine by using UHPLC-TQMS

Bisphenols, benzophenones and parabens may alter one or more functions of endocrine system and consequently cause adverse health effects on human. A rapid and sensitive analytical method for the simultaneous determination of six bisphenols, five benzophenones and seven parabens in human urine by using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled with triple quadrupole mass spectrometry was developed and applied for human urine sample analysis. The eighteen targeted compounds were separated within 11 min. Heated-electrospray ionization was operated with multiple reaction monitoring in negative-ion mode. The limit of detection ranged from 0.01 ng/mL to 0.5 ng/mL. Seven isotope-labeled internal standards were used in the quantitative analysis. After the method was validated for sensitivity, linearity, precision, accuracy and matrix effect, it was applied for the analysis of human urine samples to evaluate the profiles of human exposure. Eight of the targeted analytes were detected in more than 50% urine samples.