ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS Improving the Fluorescence Detectability of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons for Evaluation of Workplace Environments of Cement Industries Processing Organic Residues Renata P. Silva, 1 Jorge C. Masini, 1 Marcela G. Ribeiro, 2 Walter P. Pedreira, 2 Luiza M. N. Cardoso, 2 and Mary R. R. Marchi 3 1 Instituto de Quı ´mica, Universidade de Sa ˜o Paulo, Sa ˜o Paulo, SP, Brazil 2 Fundac ¸a ˜o Jorge Duprat Figueiredo de Seguranc ¸a e Medicina do Trabalho (FUNDACENTRO), Sa ˜o Paulo, SP, Brazil 3 Instituto de Quı ´mica, Universidade Estadual Paulista ‘‘Julio de Mesquita Filho’’, Araraquara, SP, Brazil Abstract: The burning of organic residues and wastes in furnaces of cement industries has been an attractive and lucrative approach to eliminate stocks of these pollutants. There is a potential risk for producing PAH in the workplace of industries burning organic wastes, so that highly sensitive analytical methods are needed for monitoring the air quality of these environments. An official method for determination of PAH is based on liquid chromatography with fluor- escence detection at fixed excitation and emission wavelengths. We demonstrate that a suitable choice of these wavelengths, which are changed during the chroma- tographic run, significantly improves the detectability of PAH in atmosphere and particulate matter collected in cement industries. Received 3 January 2008; accepted 1 July 2008. Financial support and fellowships from FAPESP, CNPq, and CAPES are gratefully acknowledged. Address correspondence to Jorge C. Masini, Instituto de Quı ´mica, Univer- sidade de Sa ˜o Paulo, C.P. 26077, 05513-970, Sa ˜o Paulo, SP, Brazil. E-mail: jcmasini@iq.usp.br Analytical Letters, 41: 2646–2657, 2008 Copyright # Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 0003-2719 print=1532-236X online DOI: 10.1080/00032710802363487 2646