Quantitative determination of hydroxy polycylic aromatic hydrocarbons as a biomarker of exposure to carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

•A new HRGC–HRMS method was developed for determination of 4 OH-PAHs.•The causes of OH-PAHs instability were identified as photo induced oxidation.•The current method controlled OH-PAH analyte degradation during analysis.•Conjugated OH-PAHs are more stable than non-conjugated OH-PAHs.•Accuracy and precision were 77.4–117% (<15% RSD) in synthetic and human urine samples.