posted on 2024-03-05, 14:33authored byJiali Ge, Xiangyu Hou, Li Liu, Qing Deng, Bibai Du, Lixi Zeng
Vulcanization accelerators (VAs) serve as crucial additives
in
synthetic rubber on a global scale. Despite their widespread use,
the environmental presence, distribution, and associated exposure
risks of VAs remain poorly understood. This study compiled a target
list and conducted a screening for eight classes encompassing 42 VAs
in diverse urban dust samples from South China. A total of 40 of the
42 target VAs were detectable across all four studied regions, among
which 30 were identified for the first time in the environment. Among
the eight structure-classified VA classes, xanthates exhibited the
highest concentrations (median: 3810–81,300 ng/g), followed
by thiazoles, guanidines, sulfenamides, dithiocarbamates, thiurams,
thioureas, and others. The median total concentrations of all target
VAs (∑VAs) were determined to be 5060 ng/g in road dust, 5730
ng/g in parking lot dust, 29,200 ng/g in vehicle repair plant dust,
and 84,300 ng/g in household dust, indicating the widespread presence
of numerous rubber-derived VAs in various urban environments. This
study marked the first systematic effort to identify a wide range
of emerging rubber-derived VAs prevalent in urban environments. The
findings call for increased attention to these widely utilized but
less well-evaluated chemicals in future research and environmental
management efforts.