Twenty-three metallic elements, including almost all essential and toxic metals such as lead, cadmium, mercury, arsenic, silver, and thallium, have been quantified in 35 types of bottled and canned Polish beer by using double-focusing sector field inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) with ultrasonic nebulization. The samples were digested using concentrated HNO3 in closed PTFE vessels and applying microwave energy under pressure. The means and medians of the concentrations of Rb, Mn, and Fe were on the order of 200 ng/mL; Cu, Zn, V, Cr, Sn, As, Pb, and Ni were detected at 1-5 ng/mL; Ag, Ga, Cd, Co, Cs, Hg, U, and Sb were found at < 1 ng/mL; and In, Tl, Bi, and Th were present at < 0.1 ng/mL. The concentrations of Hg, Cd, As, Pb, and Zn were 1-3 orders of magnitude lower than proposed tolerance limits. The interdependences among determined trace elements were examined using the principal component analysis (PCA) method. The PCA model explained 74% of the total variance. The metals tend to cluster together (As, Tl, Cs, Sn, Th, Bi, and Hg; Cd and Co; Cs and Cr; Fe and Zn; Mn and V).

This work reports on the first known field study determining emission factors for polychlorinated and polybrominated dibenzodioxins/dibenzofurans (P[C/B]DDs/Fs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) from open burning of domestic waste. Two burning waste dump sites in Mexico were sampled using high-volume samplers mounted to a mobile sampling boom. Concurrent measurements of CO and CO(2) allowed determination of emission factors via the carbon balance method. PCDD/F emission factors averaged 823 ng toxic equivalency (TEQ)/kg C(burned) (N = 8, 68% relative standard deviation, RSD), a value at least five times higher than those from previous tests with domestic waste burned in barrels and approximately 2000 times higher than those from stacks of modern municipal waste combustors. These emission factors appear to be related to combustion quality, as conditions conducive to smoldering combustion, rather than flaming combustion, resulted in higher emission factors. Emissions of 40 PBDE congeners, likely originating from brominated flame retardants, averaged 724 mug/kg C(burned) (RSD = 96%) and had congener patterns similar to those of reported atmospheric sampling. Emissions of PBDDs/Fs were similar in magnitude to their chlorinated counterparts, averaging 470 ng TEQ/kg C(burned) (RSD = 105%), and may originate as reaction products of PBDE combustion or as thermally desorbed impurities from the PBDE flame retardant.

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The analytical method used for determination of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and -furans (PCDDs/Fs) emissions from municipal waste combustors (MWCs) and other stationary sources was modified and validated to additionally allow for analysis of ultratrace levels of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and polybrominated dibenzo-p-dioxins and -furans (PBDDs/Fs) from a common flue gas sample. Potential methodological problems related to physicochemical properties of brominated compounds, including UV- and temperature-induced debromination and degradation, were addressed. The selection of solvents, optimization of extraction time, and adaptation of the cleanup and fractionation steps increased mean recoveries of (13)C(12)-labeled PBDE and PBDD/F isotope dilution surrogates about 18% and 25%, respectively. The customary liquid chromatography isolation of PBDEs and PBDDs/Fs was replaced by optimization of high-resolution gas chromatography to separate target PBDFs (2,3,7,8-Br-substituted) from potentially interfering PBDEs before mass spectroscopic identification. The optimized method allowed quantitative determination of 56 mono- through decabromodiphenylether congeners, 15 congeners of 2,3,7- and 2,3,7,8-Br-substituted tri- to octabromodibenzo-p-dioxins and -furans, and all 210 polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and -furans present in the flue gas at levels of picogram to microgram per normalized cubic meter.

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