Publication Abstract

Project ME4117 – Development and Improvement of Analytical Methods for Marine Monitoring. 3.2 – Development of analytical methods for monitoring novel brominated flame retardants (nBFRs) in marine samples.

Project ME4117 – Development and Improvement of Analytical Methods for Marine Monitoring. 3.2 – Development of analytical methods for monitoring novel brominated flame retardants (nBFRs) in marine samples.

S.Losada, J. L. Barber, P. Bersuder and R. Law

Flame retardants are a diverse group of chemicals which are added to a broad range of commercial products to provide fire protection. Some may be covalently bound in materials during production, but most are simply additive and can be released during use, following disposal or during recycling. Recently, concerns over the persistence, ability to bioaccumulate and potential toxicity of some of the most widely used brominated flame retardants (BFRs), the polybrominated diphenyl ethers, have led to increasing regulation and restrictions on their production and use within Europe. Their removal from the market has led to their substitution with other flame retardant chemicals.  Novel BFRs (nBFRs) have been defined as those which are either new to the market or recently observed in the environment. Our knowledge of the scale of use of these compounds, the uses to which they are put (i.e. the products in which they are incorporated) and the volumes in use is, as yet, limited. Clearly, though, there will be a need for environmental surveys to be undertaken in the near future, so that their distribution and potential impact can be assessed, and the need for further studies targeting particular compounds investigated.

In this study, we have conducted a literature review of the analysis of nBFRs as reported in the scientific literature. Information from this review has enabled the current state of knowledge to be assessed, and a list of the most important compounds for study to be compiled, based on criteria such as commercial production and use, occurrence in the environment, persistence, bioavailability and toxicity, where these are known. 28 halogenated flame retardant compounds were selected for study in the subsequent method development work. This comprised studies which evaluated extraction, clean-up and determination steps and optimized these to the extent possible given the wide range of chemical properties.

Method validation studies showed that the method developed did not fully meet desired quality standards for all nBFRs included. Currently, the weakness lies in the solid-phase extraction step. However, a viable method now exists for 12 compounds (BATE, b-TBCO, g-TBECH, HBB, s-DP, a-DP, bTBECH, DPTE, BB153, DBTCC and TBoCT – for full names see Table 1, page 8). In order to develop methods for the full range of nBFRs, it may be preferable to divide them into groups of chemicals with similar properties and optimize the methodology for each group.

S.Losada*, J. L. Barber*, P. Bersuder* and R. Law*

Cefas Technical Report