A novel method for the determination of Personal Care Products (PCPs) in aerosol samples: occurrence in urban, mountain and coastal environments.

Personal care products (PCPs) are compounds entering into the environment through direct discharges or ineffective removal in wastewater treatment plants. Recreational activities in lakes and beaches are additional direct sources of PCPs, especially during widespread use of sunscreens in the summer. However, even if PCPs are largely emitted into the water compartment, the atmosphere is particularly prone to the contamination of these compounds, both from direct inputs during on purpose use (e.g., perfumes and fragrances), or through re-volatilization from various environmental media acting as secondary sources. Moreover, the atmosphere represents a key environmental matrix to understand the environmental fate of these compounds: recent research showed that fragrances and UV-Filters are significantly distributed in the snow both from the Arctic and Antarctica, likely deriving from the cold-condensation of long-range transported aerosols. Nevertheless, the direct analysis of the occurrence of these PCPs in polar and remote air samples is missing, and even in urban and anthropized areas the knowledge on their distribution in atmospheric samples is still limited, in comparison to the studies reported for the water compartment.

In this work we developed and validated an innovative analytical method using a low-temperature (°40 C) Accelerated Solvent Extraction (ASE) procedure for the analyses of fragrances and UV-Filters in aerosol samples, including the particulate (quartz filter) and gaseous (Polyurethane foam – PUF) phases, avoiding the large solvent volumes needed for classical extraction. The method was applied to exploratory air samples collected during summer 2023 in low and high impacted areas of the Veneto region, including urban, mountain and coastal environments. Highest levels were detected in the venetian coastline, reflecting the high local use of sunscreen lotions containing UV-filters, but PCPs were occurring with a different pattern also in background areas of the Dolomites (Alps). Urban samples resulted at intermediate concentrations. Confirming our previous hypotheses and findings, PCPs, in particular Salicylates, are mainly distributed in the gas phase, with the exception of octacrylene, which is generally associated with the particulate. The analytical improvements developed with this method will be fundamental for the future understanding of the behaviour of PCPs in the atmosphere, including studies in remote and polar areas to confirm the long-range transport hypothesis.

Acknowledgements: IRIDE funding received by the Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics (DAIS) of the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.