Technical Bulletin No. 0625: Development of a Method for Determination of Epichlorohydrin and Epichlorohydrin-Polyamide Resin By-Products in Workplace Air

Epichlorohydrin-based polyamide (PAE) resin formulations may contain small amounts of free epichlorohydrin (Epi) and possibly 1,3-dichloro-2-propanol (1,3-DCP) and 3-chloro-1, 2-propanediol (CPD) which occur as hydrolysis and/or by-products in the synthesis of the resin. By sampling air passed over resin formulations, it was found that substantial amounts of Epi and 1,3-DCP were vaporized into air. Because of the lack of procedures for determining air concentrations of 1,3-DCP and/or CPD and the instability of these substances on charcoal, a method suitable for personal and/or area monitoring of these substances was developed.