Analysis of 1,4-Dioxane in Consumer Products by Headspace-Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry

1,4-Dioxane is an industrial chemical contaminate that may be found at trace levels in consumer products. Government jurisdictions are beginning to regulate the amount of 1,4-dioxane allowed in consumer products. The allowable concentrations are expected to vary from state to state and country to country. Meanwhile, it has already been banned and deemed unsafe in cosmetics in Canada.

There have been several methods developed to test for 1,4-dioxane, but none of these methods are adequate to detect 1,4-dioxane in consumer products with complex mixtures and solutions. This study shows methodology for low level detection of 1,4-dioxane in consumer products including cosmetics, liquid soaps, shampoos, and cleaning products. The analysis was performed on an Agilent 7697A headspace sampler attached to an Agilent Intuvo 9000 GC with a 5977B MSD using MassHunter software and a PAL-3 Robotic Autosampler (SPME tool) attached to an Agilent 8890 GC with an Agilent 7000 MSD using Agilent Mass Hunter software.

Presenter: Simon Jones (GC Applications Engineer/Scientist, Agilent Technologies, Inc.)

Simon Jones has over 23 years of GC experience. For the last 15 years, he has been with Agilent as a GC applications engineer/scientist based out of the GC column manufacturing facility in Folsom California. In his roles he has assisted with application development, troubleshooting chromatographic issues, and assisting with instrument configurations. Prior to joining Agilent in 2005, he worked in an analytical lab for the power industry, developing and optimizing testing methodologies for insulating fluids and materials in transformers.

Presenter: Shannon Coleman (GC Application Scientist, Agilent Technologies, Inc.)

Shannon Coleman holds a B.S. degree in Chemistry from the University of Colorado and an M.S. in Chemistry from Emory University. He is currently a GC Application Scientist at Agilent. He has been working with multidimensional and valve gas chromatography across various industries for the past 20 years. He supports Agilent’s North America Field Organization and spends his time consulting with and delivering educational content on understanding the fundamentals of chromatography and understanding complex gas chromatography analysis to Agilent’s customers.

Presenter: Ron Honnold (Application Scientist, Agilent Technologies, Inc.)

Ron Honnold, Ph.D. is an Applications Scientist in the Life Sciences and Applied Markets Group (LSAG) at Agilent Technologies; Santa Clara, CA. Ron is an experienced analytical chemist and mass spectrometrist with more than 30 years of experience using state-of-the-art analytical systems. Currently he is responsible for applications and methods development related to GC-MS products, particularly for single quadrupole (GC/MS), triple quadrupole (GC-MS/MS), and quadrupole time of flight (GC-QTOF). Ron is also a member of the Agilent Cannabis Task Group focusing on pesticides, terpenes, and residual solvents.

Presenter: Jessica Westland (Application Scientist, Agilent Technologies, Inc.)

Jessica Westland is a sample prep application scientist with over 10 years of analytical laboratory experience and a background in method development for GC & GC/MS applications. She works closely with cross-functional teams to support Agilent’s sample preparation products portfolio to drive growth within all market segments. Her experience continues to grow with identifying customer pain points to producing technical data and field support material for all sample prep products including new product introductions.