Method development for on‑site monitoring of volatile organic compounds via portable TD‑GC-MS: evaluation of the analytical performances of HAPSITE® ER instrumentation and thermal desorption sampling media

ABSTRACT

Determining worker exposure to hazardous volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in air at levels exceeding the Permissible Exposure Limits and Recommended Exposure Limits established by the U.S. federal agencies of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), respectively, will continue to be an important part of environmental and occupational health risk assessments. The purpose of this work was to develop a reliable analytical method for rapid and on-site assessments of occupational VOC exposures using field-capable thermal desorption-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (TD-GC-MS) instrumentation (i.e. the HAPSITE® ER). The experiments involved in this study included determining TD-GC-MS parameters suitable for efficient analyte separation and quantitation on the HAPSITE® ER, determinations of analyte mass loadings that cause mass spectrometer detector saturations, generation of calibration curves, estimations of the limits of detection (LODs) and quantification (LOQs), as well as desorption efficiency and relative response factor repeatability. The LODs using Carbopack™ B and Tenax® TA sampling media were estimated and ranged from 0.2–1.9 ng and 0.045–0.3 ng, respectively. The LOQs using Carbopack™ B and Tenax TA sampling media were estimated and ranged from 1.0–6.3 ng and 0.2–1.1 ng, respectively. We have developed a reliable analytical method for chloroform, benzene, trichloroethylene, and heptane using field-portable HAPSITE® ER instrumentation and Tenax® TA sorbent media. Reliable and accurate methods were developed for chloroform and trichloroethylene using Carbopack™ B sorbent media, however, this particular sorbent hadlow desorption efficiency and insufficient repeatability in relative response factors for many analytes. Our current and ongoing work in determining the uptake rates for analytes on Tenax® TA sorbent media will make the methods described herein applicable for on-site occupational VOC exposure assessments of chloroform, benzene, trichloroethylene, and heptane using either passive or active air sampling techniques.

KEYWORDS:

• HAPSITE® ER
• TD-GC-MS
• gas chromatography
• thermal desorption

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge Ronnee Andrews and Ryan LeBouf for reviewing the draft manuscript, as well as Peter B. Shaw for statistical data analyses. The Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) is also gratefully acknowledged for supporting this work.

Disclaimer

The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official position of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Energy. Mention of any company or product does not constitute endorsement by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Energy.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/03067319.2022.2121163.