Application of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry to the analysis of chemical warfare samples, found to contain residues of the nerve agent sarin, sulphur mustard and their degradation products

Abstract

Samples of clothing, grave debris, soil and munition fragments, collected from the Kurdish village of Birjinni, were analysed by GC-MS with selected ion monitoring (SIM) for traces of chemical warfare agents and their degradation products. Positive analyses were confirmed, where possible, by full scan mass spectra, or at low concentrations by additional GC-MS-SIM analysis using chemical ionisation, by higher resolution GC-MS-SIM, and by GC-tandem mass spectrometry using multiple reaction monitoring. Sulphur mustard and/or thiodiglycol were detected in six soil samples; isopropyl methylphosphonic acid and methylphosphonic acid, the hydrolysis products of the nerve agent sarin, were detected in six different soil samples. Trace amounts of intact sarin were detected on a painted metal fragment associated with one of these soil samples. The results demonstrate the application of different GC-MS and GC-MS-MS techniques to the unequivocal identification of chemical warfare agent residues in the environment at concentrations ranging from low ppb to ppm (w/w). They also provide the first documented unequivocal identification of nerve agent residues in environmental samples collected after a chemical attack.