Determination of legacy and novel brominated flame retardants in dust from end of life office equipment and furniture from Pretoria, South Africa

• Published in: The Science of the total environment 2018-05, Vol.622-623, p.275-281
• Main Authors: Nkabinde, Sylvia N., Okonkwo, Jonathan O., Olukunle, Olubiyi I., Daso, Adegbenro P.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: GC–MS; NBFRs; PBDEs; T-HBCDD; XRF
• ISSN: 0048-9697; 1879-1026
• DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.11.294

Indoor dust is known to be a source of human exposure to brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and these consists of the legacy polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), total hexabromocyclododecane (T-HBCDD) and the “Novel or alternate” Brominated flame retardants (NBFRs). In this study, x-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyser was employed to measure elemental bromine contents in office furniture and electronics as the first indication of the possible presence of BFRs. To investigate the possible BFRs present, a total of 21 dust samples were collected from surfaces of electronic equipment and office furniture and were analysed using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS). The concentrations of ∑7 BDE- congeners ranged from 50 to 3346ngng−1. Of the ∑7 BDE congeners analysed, BDE-209, −183 and −99 were the most dominant congeners. The concentrations observed ranged from