Verifying the presence of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) in bacon fat through high resolution NMR spectroscopy

ENVR 212

Shawn M. Abernathy, SAbernathy@howard.edu and Darrell Maxwell, dmax20@hotmail.com. Department of Chemistry, Howard University, 525 College St., NW, Washington, DC 20059
Dioxins (polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins) are a class of highly toxic ubiquitous terrestrial contaminants that are inadvertently introduced into the environment by the burning of coal, waste, wood and combustion of gasoline as well as the combustion of polyvinyl chloride, PVC. Dioxin(s) finds its way into our food supply via grazing livestock and fish after the contaminant exhaust particles land on environmental surfaces, where it amasses in the fatty tissue of these animals. In this qualitative study, 1H-NMR has been used to identify a trace amount of the dioxin 2,3,7,8-TCDD (tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin) spiked into bacon fat. Preliminary results indicate that the contaminant resides in the chemical shift region between 7.00 and 7.60 ppm and the sharp singlet resonance is on the order of 4 to 5 times the height of the instrument baseline noise. These initial results substantiate that high resolution NMR is a viable tool for elucidating dioxin(s) in our food supply.
 

General Papers
6:00 PM-8:00 PM, Wednesday, 13 September 2006 Moscone Center -- Hall D, Poster

Division of Environmental Chemistry

The 232nd ACS National Meeting, San Francisco, CA, September 10-14, 2006