Quantification of brominated flame retardants in soil

Area of Science:

• Environmental Chemistry
• Analytical Chemistry
• Food Safety

Background:

• Soil quality is vital for farm animals, especially in free-range and organic farming.
• Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), including polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), can contaminate soil and impact animal-derived food.
• Novel brominated flame retardants (nBFRs) share environmental behaviors with PBDEs, necessitating their monitoring.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a multicomponent analytical method for quantifying 10 PBDE congeners and 8 nBFR compounds in soil.
• To establish a reliable procedure for environmental monitoring of BFRs in agricultural soils.

Main Methods:

• Adaptation of a high-resolution gas chromatography coupled with high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRGC-HRMS) technique.
• Analysis of soil samples from both potentially contaminated and uncontaminated sites.
• Optimization of extraction and clean-up steps to handle diverse physicochemical properties of target analytes.

Main Results:

• The method demonstrated high sensitivity, precision, and repeatability for PBDEs and nBFRs.
• Quantification ranges were established: ∑PBDEs (0.16-1700 ng·g⁻¹ d.w.) and ∑nBFRs (0.072-1130 ng·g⁻¹ d.w.).
• PBDEs were found at higher levels (0.23-485.7 ng·g⁻¹ d.w.) in contaminated soils compared to nBFRs (0.11-0.81 ng·g⁻¹ d.w.).

Conclusions:

• The validated method is a valuable tool for environmental monitoring of BFRs in soil.
• It supports risk assessment concerning soil contamination and its potential effects on food safety.
• Addresses the need for monitoring due to the absence of regulatory limits for BFRs in food and feed.