Potential artifact formation of dioxins in ball clay during supercritical fluid extraction

Earlier surveys indicate that meat, fish and dairy products are the principal source of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin (PCDD) exposure in the diet. A recent finding by others of PCDDs in chickens that consumed a feed containing PCDD led to the finding of ball clay, an anti-caking agent, as the source. Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) was studied as a means to isolate PCDDs from commercial ball clays using GC-electron capture detection (μECD) as a means to screen for these contaminants. The finding of ng/g amounts and recoveries >100% in several samples of ball clay containing octachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (OCDD) suggested that PCDD may form artifactually as a result of analysis. Studies on pentachlorophenol (PCP) fortified ball clay were carried out by SFE and soxhlet extraction and the results compared. The values obtained by SFE were considered more problematic. The results obtained from ball clay suggest that precautions need to be exercised when using SFE to analyze for dioxins in solid samples containing chlorophenols.