Primary aromatic amines in indoor dust from 10 countries and associated human exposure

Abstract

Although primary aromatic amines (AAs) are widely used in consumer products, little is known about their occurrence in indoor dust. A liquid chromatography - tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method was applied for the determination of 29 AAs and two tobacco smoke markers (nicotine and cotinine) in 256 house dust samples collected from 10 countries. Of the 29 AAs analyzed, p-anisidine, o-anisidine, 2,6-dimethylaniline (2,6-DMA), p-cresidine (p-CD), p-toluidine (p-TD), 4,4'-methylenedianiline (4,4'-MDA), ortho/meta-toluidine (o/m-TD), 4-chloroaniline (4-CA), 2,4-diaminotoluene (2,4-DAT), aniline, and 2-naphthylamine (2-NA) as well as nicotine and cotinine, were found prevalent in house dust samples. Sum median concentrations of AAs and tobacco smoke markers varied from 29.6 to 576ng/g (overall median: 200ng/g) and 10.8 to 2920ng/g (415ng/g), respectively. Among AAs, aniline was the abundant contaminant, found at median concentrations ranging from 19.6ng/g (Colombia) to 334ng/g (South Korea). Nicotine was detected in all indoor samples at median concentrations ranging from 9.92ng/g (Colombia) to 2790ng/g (India) ng/g. Concentrations of AAs in indoor dust were significantly correlated with those of nicotine. Estimated daily intake (EDI) of select AAs through the ingestion of house dust was in the range of 0.019-3.03ng/kg-bw/day, which was five orders of magnitude below the tolerance limits.