US EPA

2202460 

Technical Report 

Negative chemical ionization mass spectrometry: applications in environmental analytical chemistry 

Dougherty, RC 

1981 

PESTAB/81/3263 

Mass Spectrom 

7 

PESTAB. The use of negative chemical ionization (NCI) screening for xenobiotic chemicals in environmental substrates has suggested widespread contamination of the general population with polychlorophenols, PCBs, polychloronaphthalenes, and tris-(1,3-dichloro-2-propyl)phosphate. Originally, NCI screening of environmental substrates called for extracting of a sample of human urine (buffered to pH 6) with with methylene chloride, drying the extract, and evaporating the solvent before examining the residue by direct probe NCI mass spectrometry. Various clean-up procedures for urine and other specific substrates have now been instituted to extend source life, the most common one being steam distillation with continuous liquid-liquid extraction. Male fertility patterns have been extensively studied using NCI techniques in efforts to determine factors responsible for the abrupt decline in male fertility in the United States. Study results suggest that the concentrations of xenobiotics/cell correlate negatively with sperm densities. Results for trichlorophenol, pentachlorophenol (PCP), pentachlorobiphenyl, hexachlorobiphenyl and tris-(1,3-dichloro-2-propyl)phosphate are presented.