For research use only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.

Ethanolamines have been used as bio- and environmental markers to measure potiential exposures to nitrogen mustards. Direct quantification of exposure to nitrogen mustards (HN1, HN2 and HN3) is difficult due to their instability1. Ethanolamines are manufactured in large volume (over one million tons per year) and have a wide range of industrial and domestic uses including: pesticide manufacturing, emulsifying agents, detergents, bactericides, and cosmetics2.  To monitor the removal of ethanolamines from industrially discharged waste water and the extent of human and environmental exposure to nitrogen mustards, a quantitative analytical method is necessary.

Analytical methods for ethanolamine quantitation include chromatographic separation with mass spectrometric detection. However, gas chromatography methods with derivatization limit the method throughput, and liquid chromatography methods with reverse phase columns suffer from poor retention and resolution.