Research Interests: Nonparametric Statistics, Petroleum, DNA damage, Humans, Toxicity, and 19 moreAir, Correlation, Industry, Male, Glutathione, Glutathione Peroxidase, Exposure, Comet Assay, Middle Aged, Peripheral blood lymphocyte, Adult, Occupational Exposure, Biological markers, Benzene, Passive sampler, N-Acetylcysteine, Control Group, ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND MANAGEMENT, and Sorbic Acid(Air, Correlation, Industry, Male, Glutathione, Glutathione Peroxidase, Exposure, Comet Assay, Middle Aged, Peripheral blood lymphocyte, Adult, Occupational Exposure, Biological markers, Benzene, Passive sampler, N-Acetylcysteine, Control Group, ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND MANAGEMENT, and Sorbic Acid)
(Air, Correlation, Industry, Male, Glutathione, Glutathione Peroxidase, Exposure, Comet Assay, Middle Aged, Peripheral blood lymphocyte, Adult, Occupational Exposure, Biological markers, Benzene, Passive sampler, N-Acetylcysteine, Control Group, ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND MANAGEMENT, and Sorbic Acid)
Immunological methods for the study of the plasma complement system have been standardized in order to be good and reproducible indicators of some biological effects of the substances under study in in vitro experiments. The substances... more
Immunological methods for the study of the plasma complement system have been standardized in order to be good and reproducible indicators of some biological effects of the substances under study in in vitro experiments. The substances tested were not capable of interfering within 10 times the possible hypothetical plasma concentration reached in vivo with the function of the different reagents used in the study of complement. Five substances (Skin-ACGIH) have been studied for their effects on the complement system in vitro; four of them could be fully studied (allylic alcohol, cyclohexanone, phenol, dimethylacetamide). After this deep insight we can conclude that: 1. These substances are capable of interfering with the immune response through their complement activating capacity 2. These substances, throughout complement activation, can induce inflammation and reduction of important defensive functions that are complement mediated. 3. The results obtained encourage to study the complement system and especially CH50 in workers exposed to the selected substances in order to verify the possibility to enclose this test in the medical surveillance program.
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Workers employed in petroleum refineries are exposed to a wide range of toxic compounds (benzene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, heavy metals, etc.) with known mutagenic and carcinogenic potential. In this study, we investigated by... more
Workers employed in petroleum refineries are exposed to a wide range of toxic compounds (benzene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, heavy metals, etc.) with known mutagenic and carcinogenic potential. In this study, we investigated by using the cytokinesis block micronucleus (CBMN) assay on human peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) whether general occupational exposure in petroleum refineries resulted in early biological effects, which would be indicative of adverse health effects in the long term. In this study, out of more 500 workers enrolled in the study, 79 male subjects (46 nonsmokers and 33 smokers), employed in two different Italian petroleum refineries, and a total of 50 male control subjects (34 nonsmokers and 16 smokers) were selected by using very strict selection criteria. The comparison of chromosome damage in PBL between exposed and control populations pointed out a significant increase of micronuclei in the exposed group, correlated with the length of employment. Resu...
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The most commonly analytical method used for the assessment of the occupational exposure to airborne endotoxins is the LAL test, but other methods are reported in the literature. The objective of this work was to develop and validate a... more
The most commonly analytical method used for the assessment of the occupational exposure to airborne endotoxins is the LAL test, but other methods are reported in the literature. The objective of this work was to develop and validate a method using HPLC coupled to triple quadrupole mass spectrometer for the quantitative determination of β-hydroxy-dodecanoic and β-hydroxy-tetradecanoic acids as chemical markers of lipopolysaccharide in Gram-negative strains. Matrix effect was significant but compensated by the use of internal standard; accuracy was always more than 85% and variability always less than 10%. LOD and LLOQ were respectively 2.5 μg/l and 10 μg/l for β-hydroxy-dodecanoic acid, 1 μg/l and 5 μg/l for β-hydroxy-tetradecanoic acid. The analysis of different bacterial strains showed that samples contain β-hydroxy-dodecanoic and β-hydroxy-tetradecanoic acids in variable ratio, and therefore the sum of their concentrations was considered the chemical marker. The method showed a s...
This paper aims to examine some methods to measure human exposure to benzene, both in life and occupational environments, through environmental and biological monitoring, examining the critical issues and optimal conditions of use. The... more
This paper aims to examine some methods to measure human exposure to benzene, both in life and occupational environments, through environmental and biological monitoring, examining the critical issues and optimal conditions of use. The overall performance of environmental monitoring, from the analytical point of view, strongly depend on the choice of an appropriate method of sampling and analysis. Urinary SPMA and t, t-MA are the biomarkers listed by ACGIH to evaluate occupational exposure: most of the recent studies use HPLC with tandem mass spectrometry, but since t, t-MA is present in the urine in larger quantities it is also determinable with UV detectors. The urinary benzene is an index not officially included in the list of the ACGIH BEIs, but it is useful to assess exposure and benzene at low concentrations, that most frequently are found today in the occupational and life environments.
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The hardening of metals involves the immersion of hot components in mineral oil with production of aerosols containing PAHs, to wich workers can be exposed. The determination of airborne PAHs and urinary 1-hydroxypyrene (1-OHPy) was... more
The hardening of metals involves the immersion of hot components in mineral oil with production of aerosols containing PAHs, to wich workers can be exposed. The determination of airborne PAHs and urinary 1-hydroxypyrene (1-OHPy) was performed for a group of workers and the latter resulted within the reference values. However, the average 1-OHPy concentration on metal workers (0.07 microg/g creatinine) was statistically different from the average value obtained for a group of employees (0.03 microg/g creatinine), highlighting the risk of exposure to PAHs. Therefore, being these potentially carcinogenic compounds, interventions were prescribed in order to reduce the risk of occupational exposure.
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This study is aimed at testing the cochlear functionality using otoacoustic emissions, analyzing the synergistic effects of simultaneous exposure to noise and organic solvents EBTx on workers of a glass-reinforced plastic products... more
This study is aimed at testing the cochlear functionality using otoacoustic emissions, analyzing the synergistic effects of simultaneous exposure to noise and organic solvents EBTx on workers of a glass-reinforced plastic products factory. Exposure to organic solvents was assessed using ambiental measurements and evaluation of the salivary concentration. Biological monitoring was performed evaluating the urinary concentration of the styrene metabolites. Statistical analysis shows that otoacoustic tests can discriminate between different exposure groups. Significant differences were found between controls and subjects exposed to high styrene and low noise levels, showing the ototoxic effect (at sub-clinical level) of the styrene exposure.
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The use of saliva for biological monitoring offers several interesting advantages, in terms of cost, non-invasive sampling, no risk of infection and little likelihood of the sample being polluted. Tests for measuring chemicals in saliva... more
The use of saliva for biological monitoring offers several interesting advantages, in terms of cost, non-invasive sampling, no risk of infection and little likelihood of the sample being polluted. Tests for measuring chemicals in saliva are available for many endogenous analytes, and xenobiotics. Saliva tests for inorganic compounds have so far not given satisfactory results, even using highly sensitive methods such as ICP/MS or atomic absorption. However, testing saliva for pesticides holds promise: the close correlation between the plasma compartment and saliva for some of these compounds has led to proposals for assaying diazinon, trichloropyridinol, atrazine, and paraquat, for instance, in saliva as biological indicators of occupational exposure. In industrial settings too significant correlations have been found between blood, urine and saliva assays. Investigations of exposure, for example, to plastifiers (phthalates), methanol, isopropanol and m-xylene have given comparable, ...
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The interaction among chemicals listed in the Directive CE/39/2000 with skin notation and glutathione S-transferase (GSTP1-1) was studied by following two different experimental approaches. The compounds were incubated with the purified... more
The interaction among chemicals listed in the Directive CE/39/2000 with skin notation and glutathione S-transferase (GSTP1-1) was studied by following two different experimental approaches. The compounds were incubated with the purified GST isoenzyme GSTP1-1 as well as with the human keratinocytes (PR5) selectively expressing GSTP1-1. Some of the molecules affected the enzymatic activity of both the purified and the intracellular GSTP1-1. In particular, 1,2-dichlorobenzene (DCB), ethylbenzene (ETB), cumene, Sulphotep and 2-eptanone (2-EPT) behaved as inhibitors of the purified GSTP1-1 enzyme, with different inhibition properties according to molecular structure. With the exception of Sulphotep showing a Ki value of 0.2 mM, all compounds reported above were characterized by high Ki values (between 2 and 16 mM) and therefore by low affinity towards GSTP1-1. These results make unlikely the use of a biosensor, based on immobilized GSTP1-1, for the detection of these molecules. On the co...
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The determination of trans, trans muconic acid (t,t-MA) in human urine, a biomarker suggested by the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists for occupational benzene exposure, with a limit value of 500 microg/g... more
The determination of trans, trans muconic acid (t,t-MA) in human urine, a biomarker suggested by the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists for occupational benzene exposure, with a limit value of 500 microg/g creatinine, is usually performed by means of gas or liquid chromatographic methods. Almost all the HPLC methods make use of strong ionic exchange cartridges for sample cleaning, reverse phase separation and detection either by UV at lambda = 259 nm or; more recently, by electrospray tandem mass spectrometry: yet, not all of these methods have been validated for quantitative analysis considering also the matrix effect. This paper presents the quantitative analysis of t,t-MA in 94 end-shift urine samples from workers of an oil refinery performed by means of an HPLC/MS/MS analytical method that uses a commercially available deuterium labeled isotope as internal standard, that during the validation has highlited the problem of interferences due to urine ion supp...
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Immunological methods for the study of the plasma complement system have been standardized in order to be good and reproducible indicators of some biological effects of the substances under study in in vitro experiments. The substances... more
Immunological methods for the study of the plasma complement system have been standardized in order to be good and reproducible indicators of some biological effects of the substances under study in in vitro experiments. The substances tested were not capable of interfering within 10 times the possible hypothetical plasma concentration reached in vivo with the function of the different reagents used in the study of complement. Five substances (Skin-ACGIH) have been studied for their effects on the complement system in vitro; four of them could be fully studied (allylic alcohol, cyclohexanone, phenol, dimethylacetamide). After this deep insight we can conclude that: 1. These substances are capable of interfering with the immune response through their complement activating capacity 2. These substances, throughout complement activation, can induce inflammation and reduction of important defensive functions that are complement mediated. 3. The results obtained encourage to study the com...
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In recent years, the potential for exposure of health care workers to antineoplastic agents has led to the establishment of more restrictive government and professional standards and procedures for handling cytotoxic drugs. Therefore, the... more
In recent years, the potential for exposure of health care workers to antineoplastic agents has led to the establishment of more restrictive government and professional standards and procedures for handling cytotoxic drugs. Therefore, the detection of low exposure levels is a new and important aim of biological monitoring. In the present paper we report an assay for the simultaneous determination of cyclophosphamide (CP) and ifosfamide (IF) in urine, using electrospray ionization liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry with selective reaction monitoring (HPLC/SRM-MS). A rapid sample preparation procedure uses a solid-phase extraction stage with C18 columns. The urine assay is linear over the range 0.02 to 0.4 microg/L, with lower limits of quantification (LLOQs) of 0.02 and 0.04 microg/L for CP and IF. The accuracy and precision have been carried out through the validation study. The intra-day precision, expressed as relative standard deviation (RSD), is found to be always le...
This research has the aim to evaluate the risk of pesticide dermal exposure for workers in greenhouses. We considered the following crops: tomato, cucumber and strawberry, largely spread in Bracciano lake district. The pesticides... more
This research has the aim to evaluate the risk of pesticide dermal exposure for workers in greenhouses. We considered the following crops: tomato, cucumber and strawberry, largely spread in Bracciano lake district. The pesticides monitored were: tetradifon on strawberry: metalaxyl, azoxystrobin and fenarimol on cucumber; acrinathrin, azoxystrobin and chlorpyrifos ethyl on tomato. The dermal exposure was evaluated by Dislodgeable Foliar Residue (DFR) measurements employing transfer coefficients got from literature. For risk evaluation, we have compared the dermal exposures with Acceptable Operator Exposure Levels (AOEL). The re-entry time were obtained intercepting the dose decay curves with AOEL values. The re-entry times result higher than two days in the cases of chlorpyrifos on tomato (re-entry time: 3 days), azoxystrobin on tomato (4 days), and tetradifon on strawberry (8 days). The need of measuring specific transfer coefficients is pointed out.
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Risk assessment for occupational exposure to antiblastic chemotherapeutic drugs (ACD) is carried out by means of environmental and biological monitoring. These practices are not widespread and furthermore their results are frequently... more
Risk assessment for occupational exposure to antiblastic chemotherapeutic drugs (ACD) is carried out by means of environmental and biological monitoring. These practices are not widespread and furthermore their results are frequently difficult to interpret. This paper discusses some of the most important aspects of risk assessment for ACD and in particular for their exposure evaluation. The following guidelines are proposed: a) working rooms, working procedures, type and quantity of drugs, and preventive measures must be checked using a standardized scheme for collecting data: an example of a check list experimented in some Italian hospitals is presented; b) cyclophosphamide, 5-fluorouracil, and Pt coordination compounds have been identified as tracers of drug mixtures usually administered, and their determination is recommended both in environmental and biological samples; c) for a correct evaluation of exposure, ACD should be determined firstly on the contaminated surfaces or on w...
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Monitoraggio biologico ed esposizione occupazionale: come i risultati di ricerche bibliografiche su riviste indicizzate con l’uso di keywords sono cambiati nell’arco di cinque anni. 76° Congresso Nazionale SIMLII (Società Italiana di Medicina del Lavoro ed Igiene Industriale). Messina, Giardini N...more
Research Interests: Genetics, Risk, DNA damage, DNA repair, Mutation, and 18 moreSmoking, Micronuclei, Female, Oncology Nursing, Male, Nurses, Environmental protection, Comet Assay, Middle Aged, Adult, Occupational Exposure, Single Nucleotide Polymorphism, Sex Factors, Genetic Polymorphism, Age Factors, Health risk, DNA binding proteins, and Antineoplastic Agents
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Research Interests: Risk assessment, Humans, Smoking, Female, Male, and 16 moreGlutathione, Young Adult, Aged, Middle Aged, Adult, Occupational Exposure, Chemical Industry, Genetic Polymorphism, Health risk, Benzene, Risk Assessment, Glutathione Transferase, Indexation, N-Acetylcysteine, ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND MANAGEMENT, and Sorbic Acid
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Research Interests:
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Styrene is used in manufacturing fiberglass reinforced plastics: and occupational exposure was related to neurotoxicology and genotoxicity. The sum of the metabolites mandelic and phenylglyoxylic acids is the ACGIH biomarker for... more
Styrene is used in manufacturing fiberglass reinforced plastics: and occupational exposure was related to neurotoxicology and genotoxicity. The sum of the metabolites mandelic and phenylglyoxylic acids is the ACGIH biomarker for occupational exposure with a BEI of 400 mg/g of creatinine in end shift urine corresponding to a airborne styrene concentration of 85 mg/m3. There are two main molding processes, open and closed, the last more effective at controlling worker's styrene exposure. To compare the open molding process to the compression of fiber reinforced resin foils, a kind of closed molding, monitoring the styrene exposure of workers in two production sites (A and B). Environmental Monitoring was carried out by Radiello samplers and Biological Monitoring by means of the determination of MA and PGA with HPLC/MS/MS in 10 workers at Site A and 14 at Site B. The median values for styrene exposure resulted 31.1 mg/m3 for Site A and 24.4 mg/m for Site B, while the medians for th...
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Research Interests:
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Benzene is a ubiquitous occupational and environmental pollutant. Improved industrial hygiene allowed airborne concentrations close to the environmental context (1-1000 µg/m(3)). Conversely, new limits for benzene levels in urban air were... more
Benzene is a ubiquitous occupational and environmental pollutant. Improved industrial hygiene allowed airborne concentrations close to the environmental context (1-1000 µg/m(3)). Conversely, new limits for benzene levels in urban air were set (5 µg/m(3)). The biomonitoring of exposure to such low benzene concentrations are performed measuring specific and sensitive biomarkers such as S-phenylmercapturic acid, trans, trans-muconic acid and urinary benzene: many studies referred high variability in the levels of these biomarkers, suggesting the involvement of polymorphic metabolic genes in the individual susceptibility to benzene toxicity. We reviewed the influence of metabolic polymorphisms on the biomarkers levels of benzene exposure and effect, in order to understand the real impact of benzene exposure on subjects with increased susceptibility.
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Research Interests: Nonparametric Statistics, Petroleum, DNA damage, Humans, Toxicity, and 19 moreAir, Correlation, Industry, Male, Glutathione, Glutathione Peroxidase, Exposure, Comet Assay, Middle Aged, Peripheral blood lymphocyte, Adult, Occupational Exposure, Biological markers, Benzene, Passive sampler, N-Acetylcysteine, Control Group, ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND MANAGEMENT, and Sorbic Acid(Air, Correlation, Industry, Male, Glutathione, Glutathione Peroxidase, Exposure, Comet Assay, Middle Aged, Peripheral blood lymphocyte, Adult, Occupational Exposure, Biological markers, Benzene, Passive sampler, N-Acetylcysteine, Control Group, ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND MANAGEMENT, and Sorbic Acid)
(Air, Correlation, Industry, Male, Glutathione, Glutathione Peroxidase, Exposure, Comet Assay, Middle Aged, Peripheral blood lymphocyte, Adult, Occupational Exposure, Biological markers, Benzene, Passive sampler, N-Acetylcysteine, Control Group, ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND MANAGEMENT, and Sorbic Acid)
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Research Interests:
Research Interests:
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Research Interests: Nonparametric Statistics, Petroleum, Humans, Correlation, Solid Phase Extraction, and 17 moreIndustry, Petrochemical industry, Male, Statistical Significance, High Pressure Liquid Chromatography, Questionnaires, Analytical Method, Occupational Exposure, Biological markers, Benzene, Biological Monitoring, Indexation, N-Acetylcysteine, Environment, Environmental Exposure, ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND MANAGEMENT, and Sorbic Acid(Industry, Petrochemical industry, Male, Statistical Significance, High Pressure Liquid Chromatography, Questionnaires, Analytical Method, Occupational Exposure, Biological markers, Benzene, Biological Monitoring, Indexation, N-Acetylcysteine, Environment, Environmental Exposure, ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND MANAGEMENT, and Sorbic Acid)
(Industry, Petrochemical industry, Male, Statistical Significance, High Pressure Liquid Chromatography, Questionnaires, Analytical Method, Occupational Exposure, Biological markers, Benzene, Biological Monitoring, Indexation, N-Acetylcysteine, Environment, Environmental Exposure, ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND MANAGEMENT, and Sorbic Acid)
Research Interests: Life Style, Environmental Monitoring, Comparative Study, Exposure Assessment, Humans, and 18 moreSmoking, Female, Method, Male, Occupational Exposure, Biological markers, Benzene, Biological Monitoring, Gasoline, Indexation, Passive sampler, Monoclonal Antibody, N-Acetylcysteine, Environment, Environmental Exposure, ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND MANAGEMENT, Expected Value, and Sorbic Acid
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Research Interests: Earth Sciences, Biological Sciences, Humans, Tandem Mass Spectrometry, High Performance Liquid Chromatography, and 10 moreHigh Pressure Liquid Chromatography, CHEMICAL SCIENCES, Urinalysis, Liquid Chromatography / Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry, Occupational Exposure, Reproducibility of Results, Microchemistry, Anthracyclines, Sensitivity and Specificity, and Antineoplastic Agents
Research Interests: Earth Sciences, Mass Spectrometry, Environmental Monitoring, Biological Sciences, Humans, and 9 moreTandem Mass Spectrometry, High Performance Liquid Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid Chromatography, CHEMICAL SCIENCES, Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), Analytical Method, Biological markers, Sensitivity and Specificity, and Environmental Exposure
Research Interests: Occupational Health, Environmental Monitoring, Noise Induced Hearing Loss, Multidisciplinary, Humans, and 16 moreNoise, Female, Male, Tandem Mass Spectrometry, High Pressure Liquid Chromatography, Middle Aged, Saliva, Adult, Occupational Exposure, Biotransformation, Gas Chromatography/mass Spectrometry, Biological markers, Job Description and Analysis, Cochlea, Styrene, and Case Control Studies
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1,3-Butadiene is used in the production of synthetic rubber and is also a widespread environmental pollutant, produced by car exhaust, heating and cigarette smoke. According to IARC it is probably carcinogenic to humans. A method was... more
1,3-Butadiene is used in the production of synthetic rubber and is also a widespread environmental pollutant, produced by car exhaust, heating and cigarette smoke. According to IARC it is probably carcinogenic to humans. A method was developed and validated for the quantification in human urine of 1,2-dihydroxybutyl mercapturic acid, a butadiene metabolite for which the American Conference of Governmental Hygienists suggests a biological exposure index of 2500 microg/L. Solid phase extraction was used for analyte extraction and HPLC-MS/MS for detection. The calibration range from 20 to 2500 microg/L required the use of polynomial calibration curves, and the performance of the analytical method was tested according to an international validation guideline. Accuracy was never less than 85%, precision always higher than 15% and the LOD 3.6 microg/L. The method was applied to 33 non-smokers, non-occupationally exposed to butadiene, and gave urinary concentrations between 16 and 599 microg/L.
Research Interests: Analytical Chemistry, Quality Control, Quantitative analysis, Uncertainty, Humans, and 16 moreSolid Phase Extraction, Calibration, Tandem Mass Spectrometry, High Performance Liquid Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid Chromatography, Analytical Method, Occupational Exposure, Reproducibility of Results, Biological Monitoring, Quantitative Analysis, N-Acetylcysteine, Method Validation, Polynomial Regression, Sensitivity and Specificity, Biochemistry and cell biology, and Standard Curve(Solid Phase Extraction, Calibration, Tandem Mass Spectrometry, High Performance Liquid Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid Chromatography, Analytical Method, Occupational Exposure, Reproducibility of Results, Biological Monitoring, Quantitative Analysis, N-Acetylcysteine, Method Validation, Polynomial Regression, Sensitivity and Specificity, Biochemistry and cell biology, and Standard Curve)
(Solid Phase Extraction, Calibration, Tandem Mass Spectrometry, High Performance Liquid Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid Chromatography, Analytical Method, Occupational Exposure, Reproducibility of Results, Biological Monitoring, Quantitative Analysis, N-Acetylcysteine, Method Validation, Polynomial Regression, Sensitivity and Specificity, Biochemistry and cell biology, and Standard Curve)