Abstract

PHTHALATES RELEASED FROM PLASTIC BOTTLES TO INNER DRINKING WATER WHICH THREATEN FOOD SAFETY AND PUBLIC HEALTH

Saad, M.M*., Sultan, Y.Y. and Ahmed, M.B.

Abstract

This work is an attempt to monitor the most recent hazards of phthalate(s) in bottled drinking water recently consumed in Egyptian markets. A simple and reliable method using GC-MS was validated and applied to detect the most common phthalate esters used in the manufacturing of different sizes of bottles of drinking water. Data of method validation showed that the linear range of the GC-MS calibration of the concentrations of 25, 50 & 100 ug/ ml, had a mean correlation coefficient of 0.991 ± 0.016. The detection limit was < 25 ng./ ul. and the recovery percentages were 90.6 6.9 depending upon the type of phthalate congener. An experimental nested classification design, include the variables of 3 different commercial brands of bottled water in 3 different bottle sizes (1, 3 & 5 liters) stored at 3 different time that, all the random collected samples of the 3 different brands were proved to be phthalate(s)-free at the intervals of 1 and 3 months of production date. By advancing storage time, traces of di-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) and din- octyl phthalate (DOP) were determined in small and medium bottled samples of 2 of the tested brands at the interval of 6 month storage. It's worthy to mention that the common used plasticizers had only commercial names with no reference to the contents and/ or the percentages of its components of phthalate esters, which makes the process of inspection or tracing the contaminants very difficult. Thus, further work is recommended to confirm the relation between storage period, temperature and the released phthalate congeners.

Keywords: Plasticizers–phthalate congeners–recovery percentage–validation–Linear range.