Abstract
A high molecular weight compound, 2,4,6-tris(2,4,6-tribromophenoxy)-1,3,5-triazine (TTBP-TAZ), was detected during the analysis of brominated flame retardants in dust samples collected from an electrical and electronic waste (e-waste) recycling facility in Ontario, Canada. Gas chromatography coupled with both high-resolution and low-resolution mass spectrometry (MS) was used to determine TTBP-TAZ's chemical structure and concentrations. To date, TTBP-TAZ has only been detected in plastic casings of electrical and electronic equipment and house dust from The Netherlands. Here we report on the concentrations of TTBP-TAZ in selected samples from North America: e-waste dust (n = 7) and air (n = 4), residential dust (n = 30), and selected outdoor air (n = 146), precipitation (n = 19), sediment (n = 11) and water (n = 2) samples from the Great Lakes environment. TTBP-TAZ was detected in all the e-waste dust and air samples, and in 70% of residential dust samples. The median concentrations of TTBP-TAZ in these three types of samples were 5540 ng/g, 5.75 ng/m3 and 6.76 ng/g, respectively. The flame retardants 2,4,6-tribromophenol, tris(2,3-dibromopropyl) isocyanurate, and 3,3′,5,5′-tetrabromobisphenol A bis(2,3-dibromopropyl) ether, BDE-47 and BDE-209 were also measured for comparison. None of these other flame retardants concentrations was significantly correlated with those of TTBP-TAZ in any of the sample types suggesting different sources. TTBP-TAZ was not detected in any of the outdoor environmental samples, which may relate to its application history and physicochemical properties. This is the first report of TTBP-TAZ in North America.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 3599-3607 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Environmental Science and Technology |
| Volume | 52 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 20 2018 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work is funded by Ontario Ministry of Labour Research Opportunities Program, Czech-American Scientific Cooperation Program (AMVIS/KONTAKT II, LH12074), and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Great Lakes National Program Office (Grant GL 00E01422, Todd Nettesheim and Vergel Santos, project officers). We are grateful to all participants and researchers involved in the U.S. dust study. We thank Jonathan A. Karty from Department of Chemistry of Indiana University Bloomington for conducting the high-resolution mass spectrometry scan. We also thank Ronald A. Hites for helpful discussions on the mass spectrometry.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 American Chemical Society.
