Bartlett C, Aul D, Blough MS, D’Andrea M, Hauck J, Kennedy AL, Minkley EG, Brown WE. Monitoring degradation of polyurethane flexible foam in a landfill simulator. Abstract #1230, Society of Toxicology 38th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, March 1999.
Abstract
Polyurethane foams are found in many common products such as car seats and mattresses. Disposal of these materials has raised the question of the stability of the polyurethane in landfill environments and the potential for aromatic amine formation. For this study, a paper-based, recirculating, landfill simulator was used to monitor the fate of both fresh toluene diisocyanate based flexible foam and cured auto shredder residue (ASR) under anaerobic, methanogenic conditions. Leachate taken at regular time intervals from the simulators was monitored specifically for the presence of toluene diamine (TOA) using GC/MS. Duplicate simulators were run for each experimental condition and monitored for 650 days. The flexible foam was added to the simulators at concentrations up to 9% (w/w) and TOA-spiked simulators were processed in para11el as positive controls. For the foam simulators, detectable levels of IDA were found in leachate with initial flow-through, reached a maximum after 26 days, and returned to below detectable levels (0.0001%) at 500 days. At maximum levels, an average of 0.001% of the flexible foam mass was measured in the leachate while no detectable TOA was found in simulators containing ASR At a maximum point of elution, the average recovery from TOA spiked simulators was 3.5% of the IDA initially added to the simulator. These results indicate greater than 95% of the added TOA is bound in the simulator. No evidence of polyurethane foam degradation under landfill conditions was observed.
