Plastic Additives in NIST Standard Reference Material 2585 and Settled Dust from Indoor Domestic and Working Environments

Background Micro and nano plastics from textiles, rubber, cleaning products, etc. present in living and working environments can release toxic compounds, added to plastics to improve their properties. Objective This study explores the presence of plastic additives in settled dust from domestic and workplace indoor environments. Methods A Standard Reference Material was used to verify the validity of analytical method. Settled dust from two occupational environments (a sail loft and a tire shop), and from the home of a worker in the sail loft, is extracted, obtaining two fractions to be injected in GC-MS and in HPLC-MS/MS to detect and quantify 32 plastic additives. Results from working environments were also compared with those from a treating plant of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). Results After a clean-up procedure and the use of matrix-matched calibration curves, the method proved to be reliable. Significant differences among the concentrations of analytes extracted from the workplace settled dust were not found except for higher values of Bis-2-ethylhexyl adipate (DEHA) and Bis-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) in the tire shop and of dimethyl phthalate (DMP) and Diisodecyl phthalate (DiDP) in the sail loft. Comparing the results from house and work environments, higher concentrations of additives were found at home. The results from the present workplaces compared with those from a WEEE treating plant showed that the latter was a much more polluted environment. Conclusion These preliminary results about the presence of plastic additives in the settled dust from living and working environments suggest that WEEE treating plant deserves more attention than others. Furthermore, the home environment hides some dangers for the presence of material that can release toxic compounds. Highlights Optimization of a method for detecting plastic additives in environmental settled dust. NIST SRM 2585 analysis of phthalates, adipates, phosphates, citrates, trimellitate, benzoate, sebacate, dicarboxylate, benzo-triazole, -triazine. Exposure to plastic additives occurs both in workplace and living environments.