Occurrence of plastic additives in outdoor air particulate matters from two industrial parks of Tarragona, Spain: Human inhalation intake risk assessment

[Display omitted] •GC–MS is well suitable technique to determine PAs, AAs and Tinuvins.•PLE allows the extraction of most compounds at recovery values higher than 85%.•AAs were detected in all samples with the higher concentrations.•Transformation products of PAs were found at higher amounts than the parent ones.•Human inhalation exposure was assessed obtaining low values of EDIs and health risk. Plastic additives include several kinds of chemicals that are added to the polymer matrix to improve the final product quality and prevent deterioration effects. They are used in a large quantity of materials, so their presence in the environment is expected. This study has developed and validated a method based on gas chromatography-mass spectrometry after pressurised liquid extraction to determine sixteen plastic additives including UV-stabilizers, aromatic and phenolic antioxidants and some of their degradation products in particulate matter (PM10) from outdoor air. Apparent recoveries were above 85% for most of compounds and low detection limits (pg m−3) were achieved. This is the first study to determine these types of contaminant in the PM10 of outdoor air from two locations surrounded by different industries. Various compounds were found in almost all samples; BHT, BHT-Q, 2,4-DTBP, BHT-CHO, UV320, UV328, Irgafos168 and Iragonx1076, with concentrations ranging from