The Quantitation of Sulfur Mustard By-Products, Sulfur-Containing Herbicides, and Organophosphonates in Soil and Concrete

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Abstract
For approximately thirty years, the facilities at Rocky Mountain Arsenal were used for producing, packaging, and shipping sulfur- and phosphorus-containing mustard, Sarin, and pesticides. Degradation and manufacturing by-products related to these species are analyzed quickly using a combination of Accelerated Solvent Extraction and gas chromatography (flame photometric detector) to determine exactly how specific waste structural materials should be handled, treated, and landfilled. These by-products are extracted rapidly from heated samples of soil or crushed concrete using acetonitrile at 100°C and 1500 psi, then analyzed using a gas chromatograph equipped with a flame photometric detector in its phosphorus- or sulfur-selective mode. Thiodiglycol, the major hydrolysis product of sulfur mustard, must be converted to a trimethylsilyl ether prior to quantitation. Detection limits, calculated using two statistically-unbiased protocols, ranged between 2–13 ug analyte/g soil or concrete.