Chemical characterization of the aircraft cabin environment by GC×GC-TOFMS (Kevin Hayes, MDCW 2024)

🎤 Presenter: Kevin Hayes¹´², Gwen O'Sullivan², Scott Campbell³, John Moncur³, David Megson¹ (¹Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, United Kingdom, ²Mount Royal University, Calgary, Canada, ³SpectralWorks Limited, Cheshire, United Kingdom)

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Abstract

Contamination of the aircraft cabin environment has been associated with an increased occupational risk and incidences of chemical injury in pilots and flight attendants. The aircraft environment is chemically complex with multiple potential contaminant sources: Interior furnishings are impregnated with halogenated and organophosphate flame retardants, pesticides and herbicides are regularity employed to prevent unwanted transmission or transport of pests, and air is bled from the engines to pressurize most commercial aircraft cabins. This air can contain chemicals originating from engine and hydraulic oil, their respective additives, and pyrolyzed products that may be generated in the high heat and pressure environment. When attempting to describe the occupational risk of the cabin environment it is essential to properly understand the importance and contributions of each potential pollution source.

To assess the aircraft cabin environment, wipe sampling was conducted on sixty-seven flights of varying duration and aircraft type. The samples and trip blanks were extracted and run with minimal cleanup, in triplicate, on a flow modulated GC×GC-ToFMS in tandem ionization mode (SepSolv BenchTOF). Suspect screening, followed by a pseudo non-targeted analysis was completed; hard and soft ionization coupled with the separatory power of multidimensional chromatography is used in this instance in the place of high-resolution mass spectrometry for compound identification. Data was analyzed using AnalyzerPro XD, and with the technical assistance of SpectralWorks LTD, greater than thirty categories of sample were examined using a variety of multivariate and summary statistical tools.