Abstract:

A method based on gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) using solid phase extraction (SPE) has been developed for the determination of 15 N-nitrosamines from children's latex articles. Artificial saliva was used as the migration solution to extract N-nitrosamines in children's latex articles. And then a polar modified polystyrene-divinylbenzene copolymer (Chromabond Easy) was used for the selective SPE of the analytes in the migration solution. The analytes were then separated on an HP-5MS UI GC column and determined by MS/MS in multiple reaction monitoring mode for qualitative and quantitative analysis. Good linearity ranged from 5 μg/L to 2000 μg/L was observed for all the compounds (R² >0.998) and the limits of quantification for the 15 N-nitrosamines were 0.625-12.50 μg/kg (S/N=10), which were lower than the limits required by the EU 2009/48/EC Directive. The average recoveries of the target analytes at low, medium, and high spiked levels were in the ranges of 53.8%-116.2%, 52.7%-105.1% and 49.5%-102.9%, respectively. The average within-day and between-day RSDs were from 1.3% to 14.0% (n=6) and from 1.6% to 7.6% (n=4), respectively. The proposed method was used to monitor N-nitrosamines in baby nipples and balloons, and N-nitrosamines were found in some samples. The total contents of the 15 N-nitrosamines in the analyzed nipples and balloons samples ranged from 0.0499 mg/kg to 41.2 mg/kg. And the total contents of the N-nitrosatable substances in the analyzed samples ranged from 0.0264 mg/kg to 12.5 mg/kg.

Key words: N-nitrosamines, children’s latex articles, gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS), solid phase extraction (SPE)