Determination of fragrances in interiors

Fragrances and essences (F&Es) have nowadays ascertained as contaminants of interiors, due to the wide presence of these chemicals in personal care and house product formulas [1, 2]. Indeed, their occurrence has been demonstrated in the air of homes and cars as well as of public premises like schools, universities and hospitals. Despite their worldwide use, fragrances belong to the class of emerging organic contaminants, also known as endocrine disruptors. In fact, though F&Es do not seem to display carcinogenic properties, however they can give raise to long- and short-term health problems, e.g. inflammation of skin, eyes and throat, allergies, and even heart, metabolism and brain difficulties as well as gene damaging [3, 4]. Most F&Es are semi-volatile and exist overall as vapours, nonetheless they have been observed also in airborne particulates (PM10, PM2.5) and in deposition dusts of interiors; that worsens the exposure of humans to these chemicals, because it is not restricted to inhalation but depends also on ingestion and contact paths. On the other hand, that makes necessary to collect both gas and particle fractions to draw information about the impact of F&E in indoor environment; that can be achieved by using filter-cartridge trains able to retain quantitatively the targeted compounds. As for analytical procedures, usually they consist of solvent extraction/thermosdesorption coupled with GC-MS detection. A dedicated procedure was optimized to determine the concentrations of F&Es in the interiors. Airborne particles (PM2.5) were collected on PTFE membranes, while the gas fraction was retained on XAD-2 cartridges. The analytes were recovered from XAD-2 through elution with acetone, and from filters through extraction in ultrasonic bath; after solvent reduction, F&Es were determined through GC-MSD operated in SIM mode. The recovery efficiency, LoD and LoQ values were evaluated. The procedure was applied to a set of samples collected in two locations, which confirmed the occurrence of F&Es in the interiors as well as outdoors. [1] J. P. Lamas, L. Sanchez-Prado, C. Garcia-Jares, M. Llompart, J. Chromatog. A, 2010, 1217, 1882–1890. [2] M. Fontal, B. L. van Drooge, J. O. Grimalt, J. Chromatog. A, 2016, 1447, 135–140 [3] E. Uhde, N. Schulz, Atmos. Environ., 2015, 106, 492-502 [4] P. Wolkoff, G. D. Nielsen, Environ. Int., 2017, 101, 96–107.