Inhalants and Screening for Multiple VOCs

The abuse of a wide range of volatile chemicals (often called inhalants) that may be inhaled accidentally or intentionally is a worldwide problem, particularly in the adolescent population. There are more than 1000 ordinary relatively inexpensive household products that may be abused via inhalation. VOCs such as toluene, chloroform, butane, propane and acetone are present in many commercial products (solvents, contact adhesives, correction fluid, 

For isolated cases, the first indication of the presence of a volatile substance may be the presence of an unknown peak when a sample is analyzed for ethanol and other volatile alcohols (see the previous section). In these instances, method development focuses on the compound encountered and frequently involves modification of the ethanol analysis procedure. Numerous procedures for single VOCs or classes of VOCs have been developed and summarized in review articles. HS-GC remains the most frequently used 

Several HS-GC procedures, listing the retention data of as many as hundreds of compounds, for the screening of multiple VOCs have been published. ,9,10,23-25 Emits of detection (LODs) and hnear analytical ranges vary with particular methods, most procedures have typical LODs of O.lmgL and upper Emits of linearity (ULOL) to concentrations as high as 5000 mg L.  

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