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Analysis of brominated flame retardants in house dust
Magdalena Abb1, Beate Stahl, Wilhelm Lorenz
1Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Institute of Chemistry, Food Chemistry and Environmental Chemistry, Germany. magdalena.abb@chemie.uni-halle.de
Abstract:
The main objective of this study was to create a robust analytical method to analyse the flame retardants decabromodiphenylether (BDE-209), hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD), and tetrabromobisphenol-A (TBBPA) in house dust in order to estimate the degree of contamination of indoor environment. A liquid chromatography method equipped with a UV-detector and electro spray-tandem mass spectrometry was used to achieve this result. Applying an external calibration for BDE-209, an internal calibration for TBBPA, and a standard addition method for HBCD low limits of quantification were obtained. The analytical procedure was carried out under exclusion of UV-light as the target compounds potentially degrade when being exposed to UV-light. Empirical data were obtained in addition to the dust samples to estimate potential influences of apartment characteristics. A weak correlation between the number of electric devices and TBBPA was found.
