The amount of sulfoconjugates excreted by 135 free-living men and the effect of certain factors, i.e. familial cancer incidence, alcohol intake, tobacco smoking, marijuana smoking, medication and specifically analgesic use, exercise, protein intake and the number of meat and vegetable servings consumed daily, were investigated. One day of urine was analyzed for each subject and three days of urine were analyzed for a randomly selected sub-group of 40 subjects.

For the one-day sample, the average amount of bound sulfate excreted was 7.45 mmole/24 hr. (0. 49 mole/mole creatinine). Total sulfate was 28.53 mmole/24 hr. (1.81 mole/mole creatinine). The values for the three-day sample were 7.65 mmole/24 hr. (0.49 mole/mole creatinine) and 28.92 mmole/24 hr (1.81 mole/mole creatinine) for bound sulfate and total sulfate, respectively.

Of the environmental factors under consideration, a significant difference was observed only for sulfate excretion in relation to beer consumption. Beer consumers excreted more total sulfate in both one-day and three-day samples, and more bound sulfate in the three-day sample than non-beer consumers.

Analysis of the three-day data revealed intra- (within subject) and inter-individual (between subject) coefficients of variation of 57.42% and 90.03% for bound sulfate (mmole/24 hr). For total sulfate, intra- and inter-individual coefficients of variation were 22.76% and 67.35%, respectively.

The need to consider variation in experimental designs is discussed, and the necessity for further research regarding sulfoconjugate excretion and genetic and environmental influences is documented.