Determination of Phthalate Esters in Childcare Products and Children's Toys by GC-MS

The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA) requires testing of childcare products and toys for selected phthalate esters by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS). The CPSC test method “CPSC-CH-C1001-09.2 Standard operating procedure for Determination of Phthalate” specifies GC–MS analysis in the SIM mode to monitor for low-intensity ions unique to specific phthalate esters, but full-scan mass spectra are also valuable in qualitative identification. Operation of the mass spectrometer in the FASST Scan/SIM mode allows concurrent high speed acquisition of full-scan and SIM mass spectral data to provide improved qualitative identification while still maintaining optimum sensitivity.