Quantitative Determination of Migrating compounds from Plastic Baby Bottles by Validated GC-QqQ-MS and LC-QqQ-MS Methods

Abstract

Following the recent prohibition on the use of BPA for the production of polycarbonate (PC) baby bottles in the European Union, baby bottles made of alternative materials, such as polypropylene, polyethersulphone, polyamide, Tritan™ or silicone, have appeared on the market. An initial study done in previous work applying a liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) followed by GC-MS analysis identified a wide variety of migrating compounds. Based on these screening results, the monitoring and quantification of the most important migrating compounds was further pursued. We describe the optimisation, validation and application of a LLE extraction method for the extraction of these migrating compounds adapted to low concentrations. Generally, absolute recoveries between 70 and 110% with RSDs < 20% were obtained. Further, specific and quantitative GC-QqQ-MS and LC-QqQ-MS methods were developed and validated by evaluating the following parameters: sensitivity, selectivity, linearity, accuracy, precision, recoveries and matrix effects. Limits of quantification (LOQ) ranged between 0.6 and 8 µg kg -1 for the majority of the selected compounds. Linearity ranged using the Mandel's fitting test between coefficients of determination (R²) of 0.995 and 0.999. Both repeatability and reproducibility were demonstrated to be satisfactory considering the Horwitz equation. Finally, the methods were applied on a selection of baby bottles representative for the Belgian market. Several compounds previously identified by the screening approach were confirmed and adequately quantified. For instance, azacyclotridecan-2-one had a maximum migration value of 1091 µg kg -1 ; whereas 4propylbenzaldehyde migrated at 27 µg kg -1 and 2,2,4-trimethyl-1,3-pentanediol diisobutyrate (TXIB) at 348 µg kg -1 . However, most of the targeted compounds were not detected or below the LOQ.

Evaluation of the migration of chemicals from baby bottles under standardised and duration testing conditions

“…Due to the large market share of PP-bottles, an additional PP bottle exhibiting another variety of migrating compounds was selected for the duration tests. The selected baby bottles corresponded to baby bottles 2 and 9 for PP, PES 1, PA 1, Tritan™ and silicone from our previous research (Onghena et al 2016).…”

“…The migration from the selected baby bottles under EU repetitive use conditions was evaluated for selected substances according to the procedure described by Onghena et al (Onghena et al 2016). Briefly, baby bottles were sterilised by filling them during 10 min with boiling water and afterwards three consecutive migrations were executed using H 2 O-EtOH (50:50, v/v) (milk simulant) for 2 h at 70 °C following EU Regulation No.…”

“…(Simoneau et al 2011;Simoneau et al 2012;Onghena et al 2014;Onghena et al 2015). Quantification of the identified compounds has been mostly conducted by a semi-quantitative approach (Simoneau et al 2012;Onghena et al 2014), though lately Onghena et al (Onghena et al 2016) proposed a quantification strategy to accurately quantify a selection of priority migrants based on the screening of these alternative materials.…”

“…Next, the migration of the selected substances under conventional EU repetitive use conditions (3 migrations during 2h at 70°C with H 2 O-EtOH (50:50, v/v, milk simulant))(European Union 2011b) was quantified by gas-and liquid tandem mass spectrometry (GC-and LC-QqQ) (Onghena et al 2016).…”

A comparison of electrospray ionization, atmospheric pressure chemical ionization, and atmospheric pressure photoionization for the liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometric analysis of bisphenols. Application to bisphenols in thermal paper receipts and U.S. currency notes

“…Health agencies generally agree that oral ingestion from BPA leaching from dental composites into saliva and BPA leaching into food or beverages from the protective internal epoxy resin coatings of canned foods are the two most common exposure routes for oral ingestion of BPA . Additional BPA human ingestion routes include direct mouthing of polycarbonates as well as secondary transfer from consumer products such as polycarbonate tableware, food storage containers, water bottles, and baby bottles . Residual, unreacted monomers of BPA in polycarbonate, but also free BPA released by these polymers under alkaline pH conditions or during microwave heating can migrate into beverages and foods, partially explaining human exposure routes .…”