Carbon Disulfide and Several Volatile Compounds from Rubber Products Used in Contact witch Foods and Medical Supplies

• Published in: SEIKATSU EISEI (Journal of Urban Living and Health Association) Vol. 31; no. 1; pp. 17 - 26
• Main Authors: BABA, Tsugio, HOSOKAWA, Mamoru, YAMADA, Akio
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Osaka Urban Living and Health Association 1987
• ISSN: 0582-4176; 1883-6631
• DOI: 10.11468/seikatsueisei1957.31.17

Identification and determination of volatile compounds in rubber products used at high temperatures were investigated. Forty-four rubber products used in contact with foods, such as nipples, pacifiers, packing for pressure cookers, hoses, spaturas, and 29 products used in medical supplies, such as stoppers for medicines, catheters, gloves for operations, were tested. The materials used for these rubber products were NR, IR, IIR, CR, NBR, EPDM, silicon rubber and others. One to five grams of the samples were put into a 50ml vial, and heated at 150°C for ten minutes in an oven. Nineteen compounds were identified from the volatile substances in the vial using mass spectrometry. Carbon disulfide and carbonyl sulfide were the main compounds, being detectable in most of the samples. Other major compounds were aldehydes, ketones, aromatic and organochloric solvents, and siloxanes. The maximum amounts of acetaldehyde, acetone, toluene, dichlromethane, 1, 1, 1-trichloroethane and octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane were 32.4, 29.8, 19.9, 41.8, 379.0, and 281mg/kg, respectively. Cabon disulfide was also released from most of the rubber products boiled in water, and 1.7 to 789mg/kg of carbon disulfide was obtained from twenty-four out of 45 rubber product specimens as a result of the treatment. On the other hand, it was found that thiurams and dithiocarbamates, such as tetramethylthiuram disulfide, zinc dimethyldithiocarbamate, the vulcanization accelerator of rubber released cabon disulfide, also when boiled in water. However, accelerators such as thiazols, guanidines, thioureas, and sulfenamides did not released any. It is important consequences from the standpoint of public health that the contamination of carbon disulfide into foods or medical drugs was able to be contained within a safe range, when thiurams and dithiocarbamates were used as vulcanization accelerator of rubber.