The pollution profiles and human exposure risks of chlorinated and brominated PAHs in indoor dusts from e-waste dismantling workshops: Comparison of GC-MS, GC-MS/MS and GC × GC-MS/MS determination methods.

The toxicities of some chlorinated and brominated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (X-PAHs) are higher than their corresponding parent PAHs. However, the identification and quantitation of X-PAHs in environment are still changeable and limitedly reported. To develop a robust method for routine analysis of X-PAHs in environmental samples, the determination of 34 X-PAHs was performed and compared using different instruments, including gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) in both electron ionization (EI) and negative chemical ionization (NCI) modes, and comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatograph-tandem mass spectrometer (GC × GC-MS/MS). GC-EI-MS/MS possessed the highest sensitivity with method detection limits of 2.00-40.0 and 2.00-20.0 pg/g dry weight (dw) for Cl-PAHs and Br-PAHs, respectively. This validated method was then applied to analyze X-PAHs in indoor dusts from a typical e-waste dismantling workshop, and the concentrations of Σ ₁₈ Br-PAHs (8.80-399 ng/g dw) were higher than Σ ₁₆ Cl-PAHs (7.91-137 ng/g dw). The toxicity equivalency quantities (TEQs) of Cl-PAHs at e-waste dismantling workshop and Br-PAHs at raw materials crushing workshop showed the highest values of 176 and 453 pg·TEQ/g, respectively. Cl-PAHs and Br-PAHs posed a potential health risk to workers through dust ingestion in workshops. Further attention should be payed to the formation mechanism of X-PAHs and the health risk.
Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)