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MONITORING DIBUTYLTIN AND TRIPHENYLTIN IN FRESH WATERS AND FISH IN THE UNITED STATES USING MICRO-LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY-ELECTROSPRAY/ION TRAP MASS SPECTROMETRY
Citation:
JonesLepp, T, K E. Varner, AND D T. Heggem. MONITORING DIBUTYLTIN AND TRIPHENYLTIN IN FRESH WATERS AND FISH IN THE UNITED STATES USING MICRO-LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY-ELECTROSPRAY/ION TRAP MASS SPECTROMETRY. ARCHIVES OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONTAMINATION & TOXICOLOGY 46(1):90-95, (2004).
Impact/Purpose:
Provide state-of-the-science sampling, analysis, separation, and detection methods to allow rapid, accurate field and laboratory analyses of contaminated soils, sediments, biota, and groundwater to support Superfund clean-up decisions. Apply state-of-the-science methods in chemical analysis and data interpretation (e.g., mass spectral interpretation) to actual problems of OSWER, the Regions, and the States, in cooperation with the Las Vegas Technical Support Center as well as by direct contacts with Regional and State employees. Provide technical advice and guidance to OSWER using the environmental chemistry expertise (e.g., mass spectrometry, analytical methods development, clean-up methodology, inorganics, organometallics, volatile organics, non-volatile organics, semi-volatile organics, separation technologies, etc.) found within the branch.
Technical research support for various projects initiated either by Regions/Program Offices or ECB scientists. While these efforts will support the Regions and Program Offices, they cannot be predicted or planned in advance, and may serve multiple duty (e.g., solve real-world problems, serve to ground-truth analytical approaches that ECB is developing, transfer new technology). Many of the activities in this task support requests involving enforcement decisions and therefore are categorized as "environmental forensics".
Description:
There is a growing body of evidence that toxic organotins are making their way into humans and other mammals (terrestrial and marine). One possible route of environmental exposure in the U.S. to organotins (specifically dibutyltin and triphenyltin) is via fresh surface waters, and fish taken from those waters. A unique methodology (developed in-house at EPA-Las Vegas) was used for quantitative and specific detection (speciation) of the organotins. This green-chemistry method combines two extraction techniques (solid-phase extraction for waters; hexane/tropolone extraction for fish) with liquid chromatography-electrospray/ion trap mass spectrometry (u-LC-ES/ITMS) as the detection method. A small survey looking for organotins in fresh surface waters across the United States, and fish from those waters, was conducted. Various concentrations of dibutyltin and triphenyltin were detected in both the waters and fish from collection sites.