earticle

영어

Phthalates, or phthalate esters, are widely used as solvents and plasticizers across various industrial sectors, particularly to impart flexibility to polyvinyl chloride (PVC) products. However, due to concerns over their potential environmental and human health hazards, such as endocrine-disrupting effects, global regulatory scrutiny of phthalates has increased. In Korea, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) has set safety limits for seven regulated phthalates (DEHP, DBP, BBP, DINP, DIDP, DNOP, DIBP) under the Hygiene Products Control Act, restricting their concentration to below 0.1% in hygiene products intended for infants and children, such as diapers and cotton swabs. In this study, a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) method was developed to simultaneously analyze 15 phthalates, including the seven regulated by MFDS and eight additional substances (DEP, DMP, DMEP, DIPP, PIPP, DNPP, DNHP, DCHP) which are regulated due to toxicity concerns by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) or have raised potential health concerns in toxicological studies. Hygiene product samples were cryogenically ground and extracted using ultrasonic extraction with n-hexane. Analysis was performed using both full-scan and selected ion monitoring (SIM) modes with a DB-5MS column. The developed method was validated following AOAC Appendix K guidelines and demonstrated excellent linearity (R2 ≥ 0.99), accuracy (recoveries of 90.52-114.06%), and precision (RSD 0.99-16.73%) for all target analytes. Limits of detection (LOD) ranged from 0.03 to 0.15 mg/L, and limits of quantification (LOQ) from 0.09-0.46 mg/L. These results confirm that the proposed method is suitable for the quality control and safety assessment of phthalates in hygiene products.