Skip to main content
Occupational and Environmental Medicine logoLink to Occupational and Environmental Medicine
. 2004 Aug;61(8):715–716. doi: 10.1136/oem.2003.008698

Urinary excretion half life of trichloroacetic acid as a biomarker of exposure to chlorinated drinking water disinfection by-products

E Bader 1, S Hrudey 1, K Froese 1
PMCID: PMC1740823  PMID: 15258281

Abstract

Methods: A longitudinal pilot exposure/intervention study measured the elimination half life of TCAA in urine. Beverage consumption was limited to a public water supply and bottled water of known TCAA concentration, and ingestion volume was managed. The five participants limited fluid consumption to only the water provided. Consumption journals were kept by each participant and their daily first morning urine (FMU) samples were analysed for TCAA and creatinine. TCAA elimination half life curves were generated from a two week washout period using TCAA-free bottled water.

Results: Individual elimination half lives ranged from 2.1 to 6.3 days, for single compartment exponential decay, the model which fit the data.

Conclusion: Urinary TCAA is persistent enough to be viable as a biomarker of medium term (days) exposure to drinking water TCAA ingestion within a range of realistic concentrations.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (54.4 KB).


Articles from Occupational and Environmental Medicine are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES