Evaluation of porous polymer traps for analysis of four volatile N-nitrosamines using thermal desorption injection coupled with a gas chromatograph-thermal energy analyzer

N-nitrosamines in Qingdao dried aquatic products and dietary risk assessment

N-nitrosamines are human carcinogens commonly present in dried aquatic products. A method of gas chromatography - mass spectrometry combined with steam distillation was developed for the determination of 9 N-nitrosamines in dried aquatic products in Qingdao, China, with which 300 samples of fish, squid, shrimp and sea cucumber collected from Qingdao were analysed. A health risk assessment was conducted based on determined levels of N-nitrosamines by using estimated daily intake and slope factors. Results showed that fish products was the category with the highest content of N-nitrosamines, whereas squid and shrimp products were the categories with the highest frequency of presence of N-nitrosamines. The average estimated cancer risk of N-nitrosamines in dried aquatic products in Qingdao ranged from 3.57 × 10^-8 to 3.53 × 10^-5. Nitrosodimethylamine, N-Nitrosodiethylamine and N-Nitrosodibutylamine could be considered to pose a potential cancer risk to residents in Qingdao.

Comparison of nutshell granular activated carbons to commercial adsorbents for the purge-and-trap gas chromatographic analysis of volatile organic compounds

Granular activated carbons (GACs) made from agricultural by-products were investigated as adsorbents for short path thermal desorption gas chromatographic analysis of selected polar and nonpolar organic compounds. GACs made from macadamia nut, black walnut and hazelnut shells were compared to four commercially available adsorbents, namely, Tenax TA, Carboxen 569, Carbosieve SIII and coconut charcoal for their properties in purge-and-trap analysis. Adsorption values and breakthrough volumes were calculated for compounds from C3 and C6-C10. GACs derived from macadamia nut shells were found to adsorb and desorb between 80% (benzene) and 277% (ethylbenzene) more acetone (C3), benzene (C6), toluene (C7), ethyl- (C8), n-propyl- (C9), or sec.-butylbenzenes (C10) purged from water at the 100 ppb level than the commercial adsorbents tested.