Study on analysis of PAHs in consumer products

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) that are carcinogenic and persistent will be restricted in consumer products from December 27, 2015 by EU REACH regulation. Pretreatment using Soxhlet extraction and quantitative analysis by GC-MS were studied to develop the method for analyzing 18 PAHs in consumer products as well as to detect the amounts and the kinds of PAHs in consumer products such as grips of a bag and a hammer, a cable and a plastic sandal. Linearity and precisions were evaluated by analyses of the standard PAH solutions ranging from 0.3125 mg/L to 5.00 mg of each of 18 PAHs. Linearity of resulting standard curves for all 18 PAHs were obtained with R-2 above 0.999. Precisions of the retention times and the peak areas were found to be 0.00%similar to 0.05% and 1.16%similar to 3.69% of relative standard deviations, respectively. The recoveries for spiked samples were all around 95%similar to 105% after Soxhlet extration using three different solvents such as dichloromethane, hexane and toluene. The limits of quantitation for 18 PAHs in solutions and polymer samples by GC-MS were evaluated to be 0.327 mg/L (Benzo[ghi] perylene)similar to 0.464 mg/L (Acenaphthylene) and 1.635 mg/kg (Benzo[ghi] perylene)similar to 2.32 mg/kg (Acenaphthylene) based upon dilution factor of 5, respectively. Under the developed analytical method, only trace amounts of phenanthrene were detected in three samples while 15 kinds of PAHs including phenanthrene were detected in a grip of hammer with concentrations of maximum 83.4 mg/kg of Phenanthrene and minimum 8.5 mg/kg of Acenaphthylene. Further studies are needed to decrease the quantitation limit and to check the feasibility of decreasing Soxhlet time as well as to demonstrate cases that the clean up is required.