Determination of 17 potential endocrine-disrupting chemicals in human saliva by dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals are a group of emerging contaminants that alters the function of the endocrine system, causing possible adverse health effects. In this study, a dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction method coupled with liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry for the simultaneous determination of 17 potential EDCs, bisphenols (A, S, P, AP, AF, Z), parabens (methyl-, ethyl-, propyl-, butyl-, benzyl-paraben), benzophenones (3, 1, 2, 8, 4-OH BP) and triclocarban, in human saliva samples was developed. Several parameters such as, type and volume of extraction and dispersive solvents, pH sample, ionic strength and, agitation, that affect extraction efficiency were investigated. Under the optimized conditions, the matrix-matched calibration curves of all analytes presented correlation coefficients higher than 0.99 (range level of 1-20 ng mL(-1)). The intra and inter day coefficient of variation and relative standard deviation were lower than 20%, at 1 ng mL(-1). The limits of detection and quantification ranged from 0.01 to 0.15 ng mL(-1) and 0.05-0.40 ng mL(-1), respectively. Finally, the proposed method was applied in the simultaneous determination of several endocrine-disrupting chemicals classes in 10 human saliva samples In conclusion, the proposed method is an attractive alternative for application in large-scale human biomonitoring studies.