Polyurethane foam sampling for the determination of acetochlor in the air of workplace-gas chromatography

The studies of Acetochlor mainly focus on the detection of environmental residues and the assessment of behavioral patterns in the environment, but there is little information on the studies related to Acetochlor occupational exposure. In particular, there are no reported methods for detecting Acetochlor concentrations in the air of the workplace. This research established the method about the detection of Acetochlor in the air of workplace. As for the desorption efficiency of other various tube filler materials and desorption solvents selected in the study did not meet the requirements of the study, the Acetochlor in the air was collected by polyurethane foam sample tube, and the sample was extracted by methanol solution and analyzed by gas chromatograph. Good linearity ( R 2 > 0.999), high repeatability (0.7–7.1%), good recoveries (93.5–107.6%) and low limit of detection of acetochlor (0.0006 mg/m 3 ) was obtained. And, the samples were stable within 30 days. The positive detection rate of fixed samples in workplace was 59.4% ( n = 37), and the positive detection rate of individual samples was 94.7% ( n = 19). A validated polyurethane foam-gas chromatography method was established for the separation and analysis of Acetochlor. The developed method is simple, efficient and suitable for the determination of Acetochlor concentration in the workplace.