Detection of Hexabromocyclododecane and Its Metabolite Pentabromocyclododecene in Chicken Egg and Fish from the Official Food Control

Abstract

During routine gas chromatography with electron capture detection (GC/ECD) analysis of chicken eggs, we observed that the most prominent peak in some samples did not match the retention time of any of the food contaminants screened. Subsequent GC coupled with mass spectrometry (GC/MS) studies clarified that the mass spectrum of the peak was very similar to hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD), which was also identified by GC/MS in the egg. The unknown compound was positively identified as pentabromocyclododecene (PBCDE), a metabolite of HBCD detected for the first time in foodstuffs. Studies of the analytical method used for the analysis of pesticides and contaminants showed that this cleanup method was suitable for the determination of HBCD and PBCDE, but storage of sample extracts resulted in the loss of HBCD when the sample extracts were not sufficiently purified. The concentrations of HBCD and PBCDE in the high polluted sample were 2.0 and 3.6 mg/kg egg fat. HBCD and PBCDE were also detected in two additional eggs at lower levels (<0.15 mg/kg), whereas 75 eggs did not contain these compounds (<0.02 mg/kg). We also detected HBCD and PBCDE in two samples of whitefish (Coregonus sp.), while an eel sample (Anguilla anguilla) positively tested for HBCD did not contain PBCDE. Surprisingly, the potential metabolite of HBCD, PBCDE, has not been detected before in any food or environmental sample. The present results indicate that more attention should be paid to the detection of HBCD and its metabolite PBCDE in chicken eggs.

A Simplified Analytical Procedure for Simultaneous Determination of Alkylphenol Ethoxylates and Brominated Flame Retardants in Fish Tissue Samples from Vaal River, South Africa

“…With the BFRs, the PBB101 was detected in almost the same concentration in both fish while HBCD was slightly higher in Carp than in Labeo umbratus species. When compared to the results reported by Hiebl & Vetter [21] as presented in Table 1, the concentration of HBCD was lower in this study. With the PBDEs, congener BDE99 was more abundant in Carp than in Labeo umbratus.…”

“…This predominance of the penta congeners is USA Trout n/a n/a 18 -2075 n/a [8] USA Carp n/a n/a 32 -920 n/a [5] USA Carp; Walleye n/a n/a 4900 -8200 n/a [3] USA Small mouth bass 800 -29,000 n/a n/a n/a [9] Taiwan Fish 2.85 -1243 n/a n/a n/a [13] Germany Coregonus sp. n/a n/a n/a 40 -60 [21] Australia Fish 6.4 -115.4 n/a n/a n/a [25] Spain Trout 0.024 -11.48 n/a n/a n/a [23] South [23]. Another factor that might be important is debromination of the higher substituted congeners resulting in increasing concentration of lower substituted BDEs over time [24].…”

Removal of brominated flame retardant from electrical and electronic waste plastic by solvothermal technique

“…It should be noted that there were 2.4%, 29.8% and 12.2% losses of bromine in methanol, ethanol and isopropanol respectively. According to previous reports, these different losses of bromine could be attributed to the different polarities of the solvents [2] and the solubility of TBBPA in the solvents [26][27][28]. Previous studies have also indicated that the storage of hexabromocyclododecane in n-hexane, isooctane and acetonitrile resulted in loss of hexabromocyclododecane [26][27][28].…”

Recovery of triphenyl phosphate from waste printed circuit boards by solvothermal process

“…The loss of phosphorus content was calculated by subtracting the phosphorus content of solid phase and solvent phase from the initial phosphorus content of waste PCBs. These losses of phosphorus were attributed to the solubility of TPPO in methanol [24][25][26]. In this case, a period of 120 min and a liquid to solid ratio of 10:1 were adequate to obtain maximum recovery efficiency.…”