163 Validations of the sampling and analysis techniques for the co-existing airborne chemicals in occupational settings

Abstract

Nowadays, more harmful volatile organic compounds are found in the workplace and exposed to them has many adverse health effects. Various occupational exposure limits are available to protect workers’ health for toxic substances. Nevertheless, air sampling and analysis methods have also been developed to detect harmful substances. Regarding health risk assessment, compared with only knowing the concentrations of fewer substances, it’ll be more beneficial if we can detect multiple compounds simultaneously. Therefore, there’s a need to develop more comprehensive and convenient way to sample and analyze air samples. In this study, we established the qualitative and quantitative conditions of co-existing airborne chemicals through taking air samples by gas bags, followed by SPME extraction, solvent-free technique, and GC/MS analysis. The findings from validation procedure showed it provides convenient and sensitive method to determine various chemicals in workplace’s air concurrently. To prepare known concentrations standard vapors, we used zero-air system and air sampling bags with the VOCs standard containing 54 different substances. Moreover, we used the micro-injection needle to inject 0.16mL liquid, which was 200μg/mL, into the bags, followed by vaporizing to produce vapor with the concentration of each VOC of about 1ppm. Carboxen-PDMS SPME fiber was selected in this study then adsorbed and extracted for 40 minutes. The results showed 49 different VOCs can be identified, including benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, o,p,m-xylene, etc. Besides, linear ranges and sample stabilities were also validated. Furthermore, the established method was applied to determine the airborne chemicals in hairdressing and nail salons.