Screening of organophosphorus compounds and their distribution in various indoor environments

Levels and distributions of organophosphate flame retardants and plasticizers in sediment from Taihu Lake, China

“…In about half of the sediment, TBEP was the most abundant chemical, followed by the chlorinated OPs TCEP and TCPP. The individual OP profiles might be associated with their application in this region [4,[36][37][38], Sjödin et al have reported, based on their research in an electronic recycling plant, that TBEP was the most prevalent compound added in electronic goods, followed by TCEP and TCPP [38]. Marklund et al studied 15 dust samples collected from varied environments and found that TBEP was the most abundant in most of the samples, followed by TCEP, TCPP, and TDCPP.…”

“…Generally, chlorinated OPs, such as tris (2-chloroethyl) phosphate (TCEP), tris (2-chloroiso-propyl) phosphate (TCPP), and tris (1,3-dichloro-2-propyl) phosphate (TDCPP), are preferentially used as flame retardants, while nonchlorinated OPs, such as tris (2-butoxyethyl) phosphate (TBEP), tributyl phosphate (TBP), and triphenyl phosphate (TPhP), are applied as plasticizer additives and also as extreme pressure additives and antiwear agents in hydraulic fluids, lubricants, transmission fluids, motor oils, and similar products [1][2][3]. Detailed information about their applications has been summarized previously [4]. Due to the ban on or phase-out of penta-and octabrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), the use of OPs as flame retardants (OPFRs) increased gradually to meet the commercial need, and these compounds are now listed as high production-volume chemicals [5][6][7].…”

“…Due to the ban on or phase-out of penta-and octabrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), the use of OPs as flame retardants (OPFRs) increased gradually to meet the commercial need, and these compounds are now listed as high production-volume chemicals [5][6][7]. Usually, the OPs are directly mixed into the materials and are not chemically bonded; therefore, they can be easily released or leached into the surrounding environment from the OP-containing products during manufacture, application, or disposal [4]. Their widespread application has resulted in extensive diffusion and ubiquitous distribution in the environment, for example, in air [8][9][10][11], wastewater and sludge [12][13][14], surface water [6,13,[15][16][17], groundwater [1], sediment [18][19][20], soil [7], and even the human body [21][22][23].…”

Evaluating the blank contamination and recovery of sample pretreatment procedures for analyzing organophosphorus flame retardants in waters

“…As one of the most commonly used organophosphorus flame retardants (OPFR), organophosphate esters (OPEs) are widely used as flame retardants or plasticizers in plastics, electronic equipment, furniture, textiles, construction and transportation (Marklund et al, 2003;Reemtsma et al, 2008;Wang et al, 2010). Given that OPFR are considered to be suitable alternatives for polybrominated diphenyl esters, which have been restricted under restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances (RoHS) 2011 (European Union, 2011), and pentaand octabromodiphenyl ethers, which were banned by the European Union (Leung et al, 2007), the general production and consumption of OPEs is expected to increase in the coming years.…”

“…As a result, OPEs are now widely present in indoor and outdoor environments, such as in surface water (Wang et al, 2011;Bacaloni et al, 2008), ground water (Regnery et al, 2011), and wastewater (Rodil et al, 2005;Marklund et al, 2005), as well as in airborne particles (Möller et al, 2011(Möller et al, , 2012, indoor dust (Marklund et al, 2003;Van den Eede et al, 2012;Yang et al, 2014) and soils (Fries and Mihajlovic, 2011). Moreover, OPEs in the environment can enter the bodies of animals and humans via skin (Möller et al, 2012), the respiratory system, and diet.…”