The 32P-postlabelling technique involves many steps that need to be carefully controlled in order to obtain a reliable quantitative determination of DNA adducts. We have studied several of the parameters involved in the DNA digestion procedures as well as those concerned in the phosphorylation reaction. Since adducts behave in very different ways in the labelling reaction, an individual protocol has to be worked out for each particular type of adduct. Quantitation is usually possible only if a synthesized standard of the adduct under investigation is run in parallel to the DNA samples throughout the whole procedure.