Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

SPME-GC-EC of chlorinated paraffins in water

Conference ·
OSTI ID:398250
; ;  [1]
  1. Univ. of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba (Canada); and others

Contamination of aquatic ecosystems with chlorinated organic contaminants is an increasing toxicological problem. Chlorinated paraffins (CPs) are a class of compounds which are used as fire retardants in paints and as high pressure lubricants and are classified as Priority Toxic Substances under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA). As the largest group of high molecular weight chlorinated hydrocarbons produced in Western Europe and North America, CPs have recently come under increased regulatory scrutiny in Canada, the USA, and Europe, because of concerns about their environmental persistence, possible adverse effects on terrestrial and aquatic organisms, and potential carcinogenicity to humans. In both the monitoring of such contamination and the determination of the success of remediation methods, straightforward and inexpensive analytical methodology increases the ease of environmental assessment and facilitates regulatory enforcement. CPs have been considered to be incapable of being analyzed by GC. The authors report the solid phase microextraction (SPME) based analysis of CPs by GC using electron capture (EC) detection. Both synthetic C{sub 10} standards and fractionated commercially derived material have been analyzed by this method in water.

OSTI ID:
398250
Report Number(s):
CONF-9511137--; ISBN 1-880611-03-1
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English