Exploring the release of hazardous volatile organic compounds from face masks and their potential health risk.

Hazardous chemicals released from the petroleum-derived face mask can be inhaled by wearers and cause adverse health effects. Here, we first used headspace solid-phase microextraction coupled with GC-MS to comprehensively analyze the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released from 26 types of face masks. The results showed that total concentrations and peak numbers ranged from 3.28 to 197 µg/mask and 81 to 162, respectively, for different types of mask. Also, light exposure could affect the chemical composition of VOCs, particularly increasing the concentrations of aldehydes, ketones, organic acids and esters. Of these detected VOCs, 142 substances were matched to a reported database of chemicals associated with plastic packaging; 30 substances were identified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as potential carcinogenic to humans; 6 substances were classified in the European Union as persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic, or very persistent, very bioaccumulative substance. Reactive carbonyls were ubiquitous in masks, especially after exposure to light. The potential risk of VOCs released from the face masks were then accessed by assuming the extreme scenario that all the VOC residues were released into the breathing air within 3 h. The result showed that the average total concentration of VOCs (17 µg/m3) was below the criterion for hygienic air, but seven substances, 2-ethylhexan-1-ol, benzene, isophorone, heptanal, naphthalene, benzyl chloride, and 1,2-dichloropropane exceeded the non-cancer health guidelines for lifetime exposure. This finding suggested that specific regulations should be adopted to improve the chemical safety of face masks.

Hollow fiber based liquid phase microextraction for the determination of organochlorine pesticides in ecological textiles by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

In this study, the hollow fiber-liquid phase microextraction (HF-LPME) coupled gas chromatograph/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) was firstly developed to determine 10 organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in ecological textiles. The present method can offer high separation efficiencies with minimal sample and solvent consumption. The extraction conditions were optimized, including the types of hollow fiber and organic solvent, the extraction time, the stirring and the salinity. Under the optimized conditions, the linear ranges of OCPs in cotton, terylene and fur samples were 5-1000 ng/g, 10-1000 ng/g and 10-800 ng/g, respectively, and the detection limit of the three samples were 0.07-2.30 ng/g, 0.89-1.66 ng/g and 0.06-1.04 ng/g, respectively. The optimized method was then successfully used to determine the OCPs in 3 kinds of spiked real samples, including cotton, terylene and fur. The good recoveries and RSDs of the quantification in real textile samples were obtained and the results were confirmed by the traditional liquid extraction method (GB/T 18412-2006). This study proved that the HF-LPME method, which was simple, low-cost and virtually solvent-free, was reliable for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the harmful OCP residues in ecological textiles.