Screening of fragrances in scented toys: a comparative study of different headspace techniques coupled to GC-MS

Abstract

Fragrances capable of inducing contact allergy in skin potentially can be present in toys. These chemicals can migrate or emit from toys and can become available to children via oral ingestion, dermal contact or inhalation. For estimation of exposure of children to fragrances in scented toys time-consuming migration and inhalation testing is required. To distinguish between toys with and without fragrance allergens a sensitive screening method without complex sample preparation is needed. To pursue this goal, we have used headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME), dynamic headspace (DHS) and full evaporation DHS (FE-DHS), all coupled to GC-MS, to determine the released amounts of 24 fragrance allergens from scented toys. The compounds were quantified by calibration resulting in good linearity (r2 > 0.990). The limits of detection were up to 8800 ng ml−1 for HS-SPME sampling, up to 3710 ng ml−1 for DHS sampling and up to 19.2 ng ml−1 for FE-DHS sampling, respectively. All methods were subsequently applied to five real toys purchased from the market. Applying HS-SPME and DHS sampling we measured the released amounts in the range of nanograms per gram material. Conversely, applying FE-DHS sampling the released amounts were found in the range of micrograms per gram material. With DHS and FE-DHS we detected fragrances in the headspace which could not be analyzed by HS-SPME sampling and by a developed quantification method for fragrances in scented toys. Altogether, FE-DHS sampling was revealed as a sensitive screening method for the detection of fragrance allergens in scented toys.