Application of mass spectrometric methods to analysis of xenobiotics in biological systems

Tetrachlorodibenzo-para-dioxin (TCDD) has been identified and quantitated at the parts-per-trillion level in three studies involving tissue. The first was an analysis of human milk from mothers in forest areas of the USA where herbicides containing 2,3,7,8-TCDD had been used. The second concerned US veterans of the Vietnam war who may have been exposed to 2,3,7,8-TCDD via contact with the defoliant, Agent Orange. The third was a controlled investigation of the fate of 2,3,7,8-TCDD in the tissue of an exposed rhesus monkey. Mass spectrometry has also been used to develop new methods for trace analysis. High-performance liquid chromatography coupled with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, negative chemical ionization, mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry and Fourier transform mass spectrometry are described as examples.