Determination of platinum in blood and urine as a tool for the biological monitoring of internal exposure

The increased industrial use of platinum has led to a growing need for the determination of platinum levels in biological materials. Concern about the release of toxic material from catalytic converters in motor vehicles in the environment and about occupational platinum exposure of employees working in the assembly of motor vehicle catalyzers and recycling led us to establish background and internal exposure levels in human body fluids. The development of an analytical procedure, based on adsorptive voltammetry with an extremely high power of detection (2 pg Pt absolute) for the determination in body fluids made population studies reliable and practicable. The methods are described and the reliability criteria are presented. For 13 not occupationally exposed persons the platinum levels ranged in urine from 3 . Platinum concentrations in human biological materials seem to be suitable as internal exposure indicators.