Analysis of brominated flame retardants in house dust

The main objective of this study was to create a robust analytical method to analyse the flame retardants decabromodiphenylether (BDE-209), hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD), and tetrabromobisphenol-A (TBBPA) in house dust in order to estimate the degree of contamination of indoor environment. A liquid chromatography method equipped with a UV-detector and electro spray-tandem mass spectrometry was used to achieve this result. Applying an external calibration for BDE-209, an internal calibration for TBBPA, and a standard addition method for HBCD low limits of quantification were obtained. The analytical procedure was carried out under exclusion of UV-light as the target compounds potentially degrade when being exposed to UV-light. Empirical data were obtained in addition to the dust samples to estimate potential influences of apartment characteristics. A weak correlation between the number of electric devices and TBBPA was found.