Investigation of lead contents in lipsticks by solid sampling high resolution continuum source electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry
Graphical abstract
Highlights
► Lead content of lipstick samples was determined by SS-HR-CS ET AAS at 283.3060 nm. ► Solid sampling technique is appropriate for the determination of lead in lipstick. ► The procedure is simple, fast and requires almost no sample preparation. ► Lead was determined applying 800 °C for pyrolysis and 2100 °C for atomization. ► The LOD and the characteristic mass were 21.3 and 12.6 pg, respectively.
Introduction
Lead is a toxic element and can affect almost many organs in human body (Hepp et al., in press, Manzoori et al., 2009). When lead reaches to tolerable levels in the body, it can be immediately poisonous resulting in long-term health problems (Abbasi et al., 2011). Lead poisoning for adults has a variety symptoms included loss of appetite, weakness, anemia, vomiting, and convulsions, sometimes leading to permanent brain damage or even death (Gondal et al., 2011).
The toxic element contents of cosmetics, especially the lead concentrations in lipstick have been interest. Every variety of lipstick has different ingredients especially various waxes, oils, polishes, antioxidants, emollients, dyes pigments and filling materials such as mica, silica, fish scales, titanium dioxide to give different colors, properties and appearances. Therefore, the lead in lipsticks may originate from ingredients which contain lead naturally or as contamination from metallic and plastic containers, during production etc. US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found the lead contents of various 400 lipsticks ranged from <0.026 ng mg−1 (the detection limit) to the highest value of 7.19 ng mg−1. The mean lead concentration of lipsticks in this survey was 1.11 ng mg−1. FDA has not put a specific limit value for lead in cosmetics but it limits the lead used in color additives as 20 μg g−1 to control the potential Pb exposure from color additives. It is expected that so many ingredients in lipsticks are potential sources of Pb in lipstick (Hepp et al., in press).
The amount of lipstick used are very low. However, women sometimes frequently use lipstick so that the lead or any toxic element accumulates in the body and may significantly contribute to the toxic element level.
In the literature, there are some reports for the determination of heavy metals in cosmetic samples. For example, lead contents were determined in 26 and eight different brands of lipsticks and eye shadows using the Zeeman atomic absorption spectrophotometer coupled to graphite tube atomizer after an acid digestion procedure (Al-Saleh et al., 2009). The levels of lead, cadmium, nickel, chromium, mercury, antimony, and arsenic in 14 brands of lipsticks were assessed in Saudi markets (Al-Saleh and Al-Enazi, 2011). Lead in lipstick was determined by inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (ICP–MS) after microwave assisted digestion. It was noticed that analysis by X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) was not sensitive enough with the available equipment and was subject to matrix absorption errors (Hepp et al., 2010). Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) technique was applied to determine the concentrations of lead, chromium, cadmium and zinc in different lipsticks in Saudi Arabia (Gondal et al., 2010). In another study, lead in 10 lipstick samples were determined by flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS) followed by microwave assisted digestion (Wang et al., 2010). In all those studies, microwave-assisted acid digestion or dry ashing techniques were used for sample preparation. However, the digestion procedure is not cost-effective, time consuming and causes the environmental pollution due to solvents, especially acids used for the digestion. Some contamination and/or analyte losses during digestion is unavoidable. Moreover, some analytes may remain in the residue or the analyte containing molecule after digestion may still be thermally stable and cannot be easily atomized. On the other hand, direct solid sampling is an attractive technique since it requires almost no sample preparation. It provides higher sensitivity because no dilution is employed. In addition, the time required for the analysis and the risk of analyte loss or contamination during sample pre-treatment are reduced. However, solid sampling has its own drawbacks, e.g. the amount of sample used is too low to represent the whole sample. In addition, any heterogeneity even in microscale cause low precision (i.e. high RSD) among the lead contents of different sample portions used in solid sampling (Gallindo Borges et al., 2006a, Gallindo Borges et al., 2006b, Baysal et al., 2010).
In the present work, a practical and sensitive method was proposed for the determination of Pb in 25 lipstick samples sold in Turkey by solid sampling high resolution continuum source electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (SS-HR-CS ET AAS). The results as well as the benefits and drawbacks of the procedure were compared with those of microwave assisted digestion.
Section snippets
Apparatus and reagents
An Analytic Jena ContrAA 700 High Resolution Continuum Source Electrothermal Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (HR-CS ET AAS) equipped with SSA 600L solid autosampler with liquid dosing unit was used for all measurements. Argon (99.99%) was used as a purge gas. Pyrolytically coated graphite tubes and platforms were used throughout this study. The experiments were performed at 283.3060 nm. Graphite furnace program for the determination of lead in this study is given in Table 1.
Samples were
The effects of sample mass
In the solid sampling technique, sensitivity is influenced not only by the analyte concentration but the amount of sample as well. Therefore, irrespective of the analyte concentration, the linearity can be maintained in a limited sample mass range. The effects of sample mass on the sensitivity and thus on the linearity was depicted on Fig. 1. The linearity deteriorated above 2 mg of lipstick which may be attributed to incomplete atomization of the analyte. Therefore, in all determinations, the
Conclusion
In this study, the advantages of direct solid sampling analysis as well as the those of HR-CS ET AAS were evaluated for the determination of lead in lipstick. It was proven that after optimization of the experimental and instrumental parameters, the solid sampling technique is appropriate for the determination of lead in lipstick. The procedure is simple, fast and requires almost no sample preparation.
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