Simultaneous quantification of five phenols in settled house dust using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

Abstract

A simple analytical method for the simultaneous determination of five phenols (bisphenol A, triclosan, 4-tert-octylphenol, 4-n-octylphenol, 4-n-nonylphenol) in indoor settled house dust was developed based on ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS). Analytes were extracted from dust samples using acetone under sonication. The extracts were concentrated and dissolved in 0.2 mL acetonitrile, then analyzed using UPLC-MS/MS in multiple reaction monitoring mode. For quantification, calibration curves of phenol standards in blank dust samples were used. Only 0.025 g of each dust sample was needed for the analysis. Method detection limits were 1.4–192 ng g⁻¹, and absolute recoveries were 79–114% with coefficients of variation <20% for all the analytes (except triclosan, which was at 39.7%). This method was applied to measure the concentration of five phenols in 47 settled house dust samples from urban homes in which pre-school aged children lived. A high frequency of detection for most of the target phenols (except 4-n-octylphenol and 4-n-nonylphenol) combined with a wide distribution in concentration, supported the notion that indoor dust may represent an important (but widely variable) pathway of exposure to bisphenol A, triclosan and 4-tert-octylphenol for toddlers.