Determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in carbon black-containing plastic consumer products from the Jordanian market

Abstract

The concentrations of 13 Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) were determined using a developed and validated Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS) method in 12 carbon Black-containing rubber and plastic samples collected from the Jordanian market. The total concentrations of the studied PAHs were ranged from 1.25 mg/kg to 528 mg/kg. Both results of Toxicity Equivalent concentration (TEQ) and those of the total estimated cancer risk show that the most dangerous and carcinogenic type of carbon-black containing plastic article is the toy wheel, and the least carcinogenic are the car wiper and toilet plunger samples. The validation parameters were applied on the developed method; the correlation coefficient in linearity test for the 13 PAHs were ranging from 0.9993 to 0.9998 for the concentration range 0.01 to 5 mg/L. Recovery results were ranging between 81.2% and 129%.

Keywords:

• PAHs
• plastic consumer products
• carbon Black
• cancer risk
• TEQ
• Jordan

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.