Simple liquid-chromatographic determination of urinary coproporphyrin in workers exposed to lead

We developed a simple method for the determination of urinary coproporphyrin (CP) in lead workers, using a "high-performance" liquid chromatograph (HPLC) equipped with a fluorescence detector. The detection limit of urinary CP in this method was 5 micrograms per liter of urine. The working linear range of urinary CP concentration was 5 to 1500 micrograms/L. In 41 lead-exposed workers, the urinary CP values obtained by the present HPLC method were well correlated with those obtained by a conventional spectrophotometric method (r = 0.94). The present method is useful for screening workers exposed to lead.