title: Trace elements in e-liquids - Development and validation of an ICP-MS method for the analysis of electronic cigarette refills.
abstract: Electronic cigarette use has rapidly increased in recent years. In assessing their safety, and in view of coming regulations, trace elements (TE) are among the potentially toxic compounds required to be evaluated in electronic cigarette refill fluids ("e-liquids"). An analytical method using inductively coupled plasma with mass spectrometric detection (ICP-MS) was developed and rigorously validated in order to determine concentrations of 15 TE in 54 e-liquids from a French brand. Despite a significant matrix effect from the main e-liquid constituents, and difficulties related to the current lack of reference materials, our method demonstrated satisfactory linearity, precision and robustness, and permitted the quantification of low concentrations of these 15 elements: lower limits of quantification (LLQ) obtained were ≤4 ppb for all elements except for Ni, Cu and Zn (16 ppb, 20 ppb and 200 ppb, respectively). All TE concentrations in all tested samples were <510 ppb, mostly near or below the LLQs. This method is transposable and is timely for laboratories seeking to meet a prospective demand in light of current or future regulations.
authors.affiliation: Univ. Lille, CHU Lille, Institut Pasteur de Lille, EA 4483 - IMPECS - IMPact de l'Environnement Chimique sur la Santé humaine, F-59000 Lille, France.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Beauval
authors.affiliation: Centre Universitaire de Mesures et d'Analyses, Université de Lille 2, Faculté des Sciences Pharmaceutiques et Biologiques de Lille, 59006 Lille, France.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Howsam
authors.affiliation: Univ. Lille, CHU Lille, Institut Pasteur de Lille, EA 4483 - IMPECS - IMPact de l'Environnement Chimique sur la Santé humaine, F-59000 Lille, France.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Antherieu
authors.affiliation: Univ. Lille, CHU Lille, Institut Pasteur de Lille, EA 4483 - IMPECS - IMPact de l'Environnement Chimique sur la Santé humaine, F-59000 Lille, France.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Allorge
authors.affiliation: Univ. Lille, CHU Lille, Institut Pasteur de Lille, EA 4483 - IMPECS - IMPact de l'Environnement Chimique sur la Santé humaine, F-59000 Lille, France.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Soyez
authors.affiliation: Univ. Lille, CHU Lille, Institut Pasteur de Lille, EA 4483 - IMPECS - IMPact de l'Environnement Chimique sur la Santé humaine, F-59000 Lille, France.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Garçon
authors.affiliation: Centre Universitaire de Mesures et d'Analyses, Université de Lille 2, Faculté des Sciences Pharmaceutiques et Biologiques de Lille, 59006 Lille, France.
authors.forename: J F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Goossens
authors.affiliation: Univ. Lille, CHU Lille, Institut Pasteur de Lille, EA 4483 - IMPECS - IMPact de l'Environnement Chimique sur la Santé humaine, F-59000 Lille, France.
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Lo-Guidice
authors.affiliation: Univ. Lille, CHU Lille, Institut Pasteur de Lille, EA 4483 - IMPECS - IMPact de l'Environnement Chimique sur la Santé humaine, F-59000 Lille, France. Electronic address: anne.garat-2@univ-lille2.fr.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Garat
mesh_terms: D002138:Calibration; D004340:Drug Contamination; D066300:Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems; D057230:Limit of Detection; D016014:Linear Models; D013058:Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D018722:Nicotinic Agonists / Q000032:analysis*; D012015:Reference Standards; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000379:methods*; D012997:Solvents / Q000032:analysis*; D014131:Trace Elements / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D018722:Nicotinic Agonists; D012997:Solvents; D014131:Trace Elements
keywords: E-liquids; Electronic cigarettes; ICP-MS; Method validation; Trace elements