Simultaneous quantification of 49 elements associated to e-waste in human blood by ICP-MS for routine analysis

Abstract

Health risks concerns related to e-waste contamination are increasing all over the world, and especially in developing countries. We have developed an easy, quick, and robust method for the quantification of 49 elements associated to electronic consumer products and their e-wastes in human blood. An aliquot of blood (130 μL) is simply diluted using an alkaline solution, and the elements are simultaneously quantified at the picogram-per-milliliter level without the need of clean-up steps. The accuracy, precision, linearity and limit of quantification (LOQ) of the method were assessed. Recovery values at concentration levels between 0.010 and 5 ng mL−1 were studied. A range of 89–118% and a range of 87–128% for REE and toxic heavy elements was found respectively. The relative standard deviations (RSD) calculated were lower than 8% for the most elements. The limits of quantification (LOQ) were found to be lower than 0.04 ng mL−1 for toxic heavy elements and 0.06 ng mL−1 for the REE with some few exceptions in both cases. The validity of the proposed methodology was assessed by analyzing a certified human blood reference material with known concentrations of several elements. The proposed method is suitable for routine use in biomonitoring studies.