Unusually high levels of bisphenol A (BPA) in thermal paper cash register receipts (CRs): development and application of a robust LC-UV method to quantify BPA in CRs. (13th June 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Babu, Sainath; Uppu, Sannihith N.; Martin, Brittany; Agu, Ogad A.; Uppu, Rao M.
• Is Part Of: Toxicology mechanisms and methods. Volume 25:Number 5(2015)
• Page Start: 410
• Page End: 416
• Publication Date: 2015-06-13
• Subjects: Method development for BPA -- MS–EI detection -- RP-HPLC -- thermal paper cash receipts; Analytical toxicology -- Periodicals; Toxicology -- Periodicals; Toxicology -- Methodology -- Periodicals; 615.907
• DOI: 10.3109/15376516.2015.1045661
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1537-6516

Abstract

Abstract: We have developed a simple, reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) method for the determination of bisphenol A (BPA) in thermal paper cash register receipts (CRs). The method is suitable for analysis of other types of bisphenols and it involves an overnight extraction of CRs with acetonitrile (AN) at 50 °C followed by the HPLC analysis on a Supelcosil LC18 column (150 × 4.6 mm, particle size: 5 μ) using 50% AN in water as the mobile phase (5 min, isocratic). The composition of AN in the mobile phase changed to 100% over a 10 min period (linear gradient) and then held at 100% AN for 10 min (isocratic). The flow rate was set at 1 mL/min (injection volume: 20 μL) and the eluent was monitored at 234 nm. The authentic BPA eluted with a retention time of 5.9 min and gave a linear detector response in the concentration range of 0.23–50 mg/L. BPA in the CR extracts also eluted with the same retention and had identical absorbance properties as the standard. When CR extracts were co-injected with authentic BPA, they were resolved as a single peak. Further, GC/MS/EI analysis of authentic BPA and the HPLC-purified CR extracts have identical ion chromatograms and fragmentation of the molecular ion ( m/z = 228). We have analyzed 170 CRs collected from 62 different vendors including supermarkets, fast food restaurants, gas stations and banking outlets. Almost all cash receipts ( n = 168) showed the presence of BPA in the concentration range of 0.45–4.26% ( M ± SD, 1.54 ± 0.73%).