Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane determination in air by thermal desorption gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.
BACKGROUND
Current quantitative methods for airborne dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) require collection and extraction times of ≥ 12 h. The aim of this study was to develop a method for quantifying airborne DDT with a short (<4 h) collection and analysis time.


RESULTS
Precision [relative standard deviation (RSD)] for each calibration point (0.8-9.0), linearity (R(2) = 0.99) and apparent recovery (R' = 96.5%) were determined from thermal desorption (TD) gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analyses of Tenax-TA-packed sampling tubes spiked with 1-250 ng of DDT. Recovery of (13) C-labeled 4,4'-DDT from tubes spiked before and after air sampling was 97.3 and 90.3% respectively. DDT was detected and quantified in 1-3 L samples of air collected during 10-180 min sampling events. A significant difference was observed in DDT air concentration between 28 and 33 °C during microchamber studies.


CONCLUSIONS
The results demonstrate that the TD GC-MS method developed in this study is precise, reproducible and linear over the span of 1-250 ng of DDT spiked onto TD tubes. By avoiding dilution of the sample, the method described allows the measurement of DDT vapor concentrations during short sampling periods (10-180 min) relevant to mosquito behavior studies.
US Naval Medical Research Center, Silver Spring, MD 20910, USA. nicholas.martin@med.navy.mil
Nicholas J
NJ
Martin
Philip A
PA
Smith
Carlis W
CW
Brown
Nicole L
NL
Achee
Gerald T
GT
DeLong
D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D003634:DDT / Q000032:analysis*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*
D000393:Air Pollutants; D003634:DDT