Overview
This paper investigates false positive detections of monomethyltin (MMT) in organotin migration tests for toys under the EU Toy Safety Directive (Directive 2009/48/EC). The derivatization reagent sodium tetraethylborate can generate a tetraethylmethyltin (TEMT) artefact from inorganic tin in gastric juice, which co-elutes with monomethyltin in GC-MS organotin analysis and produces false positives. The experimental substrate is metallic tin powder and tinplated toy materials, not food. This paper has no food occurrence data and is not relevant to dietary tin exposure.
Key numbers
No food-relevant tin data.
Evidence Fitness
Rejected as unusable for food tin occurrence evidence. This is a consumer product safety paper focused on toy organotin migration testing methodology. No food matrices, no food concentration data, no dietary relevance. Included in the deposit unit as background on inorganic-tin versus organotin analytical distinction.
Methods
Metallic tin powder (99.99%) and tinplated toy materials treated with artificial gastric juice (0.07 mol/L HCl) following EN 71-3:2013+A3:2018. GC-MS analysis for organotin speciation after derivatization with sodium tetraethylborate.
Implications
Not applicable; no food data. The artefact mechanism (inorganic tin reacting with NaBEt4 to produce false positive for monomethyltin) is analytically relevant background for understanding organotin speciation methods, but it does not affect total tin food measurements by ICP-MS.
Provenance notes
Open access under CC BY license. Retrieved from PMC as PMC7150698. Included in the HMI-METAL-TIN-INORGANIC-1 deposit as background on inorganic tin/organotin analytical distinction; not cited on the metal page.
Related evidence
None.
Update history
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