Urinary nickel monitoring as indicator of tobacco addiction level

PERALTA, CECILIA; FERNANDEZ, LILIANA; MASI, ADRIANA

BIOCELL

INST HISTOL EMBRIOL-CONICET

Año: 2010 vol. 34 p. 70 - 70

0327-9545

Smokers are exposed to compounds of nickel in quantities between 2 and 6.2 mg/cigarette. Approximately 10 to 20% of metal is expelled in the cigarette smoke and can be inhaled as nickel carbonyl, a very toxic substance. In this work, the separation/preconcentration of nickel on nylon membranes (0.45 mm pore size) previously treated with eosin is proposed for later quantification by molecular fluorescence (ëem = 547 nm, ëexc = 515 nm). At the optimal experimental conditions, quantitative recovery was reached (superior to 99 %), with a detection limit of 1.32 10-4 mg L-1 and quantification limit of 4.40 10-4 mg L-1. The calibration of the new methodology is linear in a concentration range of 4.40 10-4 to 0.41 mg  L-1. The tolerance level, respect to cations and anions as potential interferents, was studied, giving good results. The methodology was validated by standard addition method and satisfactorily applied to urinary nickel determination in smokers, second hand smokers and not smoker samples without previous treatment. The proposed methodology represents an alternative to the routine metal analysis methods, with the advantage of using an simple inexpensive instrumental as a spectrofluorometer.